Not Worth the Price of Admission

Sorry, Laurie, I know you said you loved it but . . .

A couple of days ago, I went with some coworkers to a matinee showing of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." I was intrigued by what I had already heard about the thoughtful and atypical storyline and was therefore willing to sit through 2 hours & 48 minutes of Hollywood’s work. However, I have to admit, that in no way was this movie worth the price of admission (and I think that most of those that were with me would agree). The filming itself was beautiful and the acting wasn’t half bad but I think I would have been just as entertained watching the paint dry in my living room. At least with that home improvement activity you have an outcome that is worth something.

When I got home from the movie, I went to Dirty Harry’s Place, a fantastic site for conservative and unbiased critiques of Hollywood, and I couldn’t have agreed more with his critique of “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” Below I have pasted a few of the highlights. (Click here for the complete article. Trust me, it's worth reading before you go wasting your money on the movie, even at a matinee price.)

Nearly two and a half hours pass before The Curious Case of Benjamin Button hits you with any real warmth or poignancy and that’s an awfully long row to hoe in order to finally feel the way the lush trailer promised. The real failure of the film isn’t due to its frustrating lack of a central story and emotional through-line, or even two very unappealing love interests. It fails because wistful isn’t a theme, and other than a series of episodes under the impression they’re more important than they really are, Benjamin Button simply isn’t about anything.

The first couple hours are made up of episodes in Benjamin’s life. As stand-alone blackouts each might work as a whimsical fable, but the lack of a central narrative combined with the self-importance of it all wears thin after a half-hour. The visuals are beautiful, the acting is excellent, but the wisdom and insight is shallow nonsense. Nothing we learn from Benjamin’s ceaseless voice-over ever reaches beyond the depth of a fortune cookie.

And what does it say about the film that it wouldn’t have been all that difficult to tell the exact same story without the gimmick of our protagonist aging in reverse? Benjamin is only different from us in how he ages. Other than that he looks normal and goes through all the normal psychological phases of life. In other words, it is all much ado about nothing. The tragedy of Daisy and Benjamin’s love affair is no tragedy, at least not anymore tragic than anyone else’s. Eventually age and death take everyone away from us. You grab what time you have and make the most of it. Daisy and Benjamin had thirty of forty good years available to them. So what the hell’s all the hand-wringing about? That’s not tragedy, that’s life.

Benjamin Button very much wants to be warm and rich and hit home in the heart department. The world created by director David Fincher is meticulously designed for just that and the special effects are equally impressive because you don’t notice them. But all we have here is an awfully lovely shell without a thing in the center.

I know that some of you liked this movie, and that's great! But I'm the type of person that likes movies with substance and are, consequently, not a waste of time. And, quite frankly, if I'm going to waste my time and money, it's not going to be with and on behalf of Hollywood.