***(Good but Overwhelmingly Bleak)
DIRECTOR
David Fincher
Writer:
Eric Roth
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 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.
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.
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