THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON

***
(Good but Overwhelmingly Bleak)

DIRECTOR

David Fincher

Writer:
Eric Roth

This is the most overwhelmingly sad film I have seen since "GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES" and that was a freaking cartoon! This is not the best film of 2008, but it certainly is the saddest, most heart-wrenching film of the decade. I'm manly enough to admit that after watching it, my wife and I were in tears for an hour, holding each other tightly. Maybe its because we have a little baby and the premise hit us really hard, or we felt exteremly sorry for Benjamin, but this film fucked us up worse than any other movie this year or any year for that matter.

The story is about a man named Benjamin Button (see, the title makes sense) that is born old. As a baby he is wrinkled and saggy, but more so than any newborn should look. His mother dies in childbirth and he is abandoned by his father. He grows up young in an old folks home and falls in love with a young girl named daisy. The rest of the two hours is all about Benjamin and Daisy's love story, chronicling every time their paths cross. In the mean time, Benjamin becomes a sailor and goes to war, and then returns to the old folks home to tend it with his foster mom.

The film has been likened to "FOREST GUMP", because they had the same screenwriter, but even though I thought "FOREST GUMP" was bittersweet, it still had a wonderful ending and to me is superior to this film. Forest took on the world, but Benjamin just sits around and grows younger and younger, not doing much with his life, which makes the film kind of boring. There are some incredibly beautiful and touching moments in this film, but in the end, there are a lot of loose ends left untied and Benjamin's death is so unbelieveable sad, you'll be wondering why you sat through this film anyway. The best part about the whole works is the lovely soundtrack which captures the maudlin tone wonderfully.

VERDICT:
Sad and depressing to an incredible degree, this film floored me with its terribly unsatisfying ending. It's a beautiful film, but so devastatingly hopeless that I never want to watch it again. Buy the soundtrack, though, it's beautiful.

CHANDNI CHOWK TO CHINA

**
(Long and uneven, but entertaining)

DIRECTOR:
Nikhil Advani

WRITERS:
Rajat Arora
Kailash Kher

I have never seen an honest-to-goodness Bollywood film before, and I don't know that "CHANDNI" is your typical Bollywood film as we Westerners imagine them. In any case, this was definitely a case of culture shock, even if the filmmakers were trying to produce your typical, average, everyday martial arts spectacle.

This is not Jacie Chan. What this is, in fact, is the longest movie I have ever sat through. The running time is only 154 mins, but it feels like it goes on forever! The plot is simple. A dimwitted, annoying moron is mistaken as the reincarnation of the great Chinese warrior Liu Shengh, who defended the Great Wall of China to his valiant death. Based on that premise, the film unspools stunning fight after stunning fight mixed with incredibly depressing drama and slapstick humor.

I enjoyed the film, regardless of the uneven storytelling and the incredibly annoying lead actor. The fighting was wire-work and CG heavy, but it was still impressive and fun to watch. The dance numbers (this is a Bollywood movie after all) were actually quite fun and I wanted more of them. The title track dance number is the best and was really the highlight of the film, unfortunately it comes in at around the 30 minute mark. The best part of the film, however was the incredibly hot Deepika Padukone, who plays dual roles as a spokesmodel and an ass-kicking assassin. Her presence made the boring parts bareable.

VERDICT:

An incredibly fun film that does get a little to serious at times and outstays its welcome. Still, martial arts fans should get a kick out of action and surprisingly the singing and dancing
were the best parts!