Being a dedicated fan of David Fincher I had high hopes on his upcoming movie The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button. With Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinton he had a great cast as a resource for what was supposed to be an epic movie. Based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald the movie depicts the life of a man who is born old and ages backwards. What sounds compelling turns out to be a movie that is visually very impressing but not convincing on the emotional part. I’ll go into further details along with photos and the trailer after the button.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying this film is bad or not worth watching. The costumes, make-up, sets and special effects are brilliant. The animated aged version of Brad Pitt is really stunning (Gollum says hi), and so is the teenage ballerina version of Cate Blanchett. But the heart of the story was supposed to be the love between those two characters who age in opposite ways. And here it becomes obvious that Fincher is not an expert when it comes to romance. His previous movies Alien 3, Seven, The Game, Fight Club, Panic Room and Zodiac show that clearly his specialty is suspense. And as the spark is not really flying between Benjamin Button and the supposed love of his life, the almost three hour long movie becomes for me one thing in particular: tiring.
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button was nominated for 5 Golden Globes (see, some people liked it!) and will be released to German theatres on January 29th 2009.
