The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

Tells the story of Benjamin Button, a man who starts aging backwards with consequences.

Director:

David Fincher

Writers:

Eric Roth (screenplay), Eric Roth (story)

Stars:

Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton

Won 3 Oscars. Another 81 wins & 157 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Cate Blanchett	...	Daisy
Brad Pitt	...	Benjamin Button
Julia Ormond	...	Caroline
Faune Chambers Watkins	...	Dorothy Baker (as Faune Chambers)
Elias Koteas	...	Monsieur Gateau
Donna Duplantier	...	Blanche Devereux
Jacob Tolano	...	Martin Gateau (as Jacob Wood)
Earl Maddox	...	Man at Train Station
Ed Metzger	...	Teddy Roosevelt
Jason Flemyng	...	Thomas Button
Danny Vinson	...	Priest Giving Last Rites
David Jensen	...	Doctor at Benjamin's Birth
Joeanna Sayler	...	Caroline Button
Taraji P. Henson	...	Queenie
Mahershala Ali	...	Tizzy (as Mahershalalhashbaz Ali)

Storyline

On the day that Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans, elderly Daisy Williams (nee Fuller) is on her deathbed in a New Orleans hospital. At her side is her adult daughter, Caroline. Daisy asks Caroline to read to her aloud the diary of Daisy's lifelong friend, Benjamin Button. Benjamin's diary recounts his entire extraordinary life, the primary unusual aspect of which was his aging backwards, being diagnosed with several aging diseases at birth and thus given little chance of survival, but who does survive and gets younger with time. Abandoned by his biological father, Thomas Button, after Benjamin's biological mother died in childbirth, Benjamin was raised by Queenie, a black woman and caregiver at a seniors home. Daisy's grandmother was a resident at that home, which is where she first met Benjamin. Although separated through the years, Daisy and Benjamin remain in contact throughout their lives, reconnecting in their forties when in age they finally match up. Some of the revelations ...

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Plot Keywords:

premature aging | deformed baby | older man younger woman relationship | reverse aging | medical condition | 

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Taglines:

"I was born under unusual circumstances".

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Genres:

Drama | Fantasy | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for brief war violence, sexual content, language and smoking

Did You Know?

Trivia

The short story based on a remark by author Mark Twain. Twain famously remarked that 'the best part of life was from the beginning and the worst part was the end'.

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Goofs

Russian soldiers that we see in the Murmansk bar, where Captain Mike tells about fly-birds, are wearing an impossible uniform: mixture of tsarist, pre-1917 era and of the Soviet uniform created in 1943. In 1941, when the action takes place, Soviet soldiers hadn't yet shoulder boards.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Daisy: What are you looking at, Caroline?
Caroline: The wind, mom.
[yawns]
Caroline: They say the hurricane is coming.

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Crazy Credits

The Paramount and Warner Bros. logos are in the form of mosaics constructed from several buttons.

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Connections

Referenced in The Cleveland Show: The Curious Case of Jr. Working at the Stool (2010)

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Soundtracks

Wah Dee Dah
Written by Irving Mills, J. Russel Robinson, and Ned Washington
Performed by Cab Calloway
Courtesy of JSP Records

User Reviews

An Enjoyable Watch For All!

Saw this movie in my local "Odeon" cinema this past Sunday.

Now i had extremely high expectations for this one and it didn't quite live up to them. This is not to say it wasn't a good film as from my rating you can see i gave it an eight it was a brilliant film just not quite as gripping or "amazing" as a lot of other people seem to have thought.

The story is obviously the highlight it really is beautiful and the director and the actors involved all helped portray it in the best possible way they could to be honest which was not an easy task. This really was a film that could have been easily screwed up but it wasn't! Pitt and Blanchett's performances were great from Pitt playing a small wrinkly young man! to some really brilliant scenes involving the both of them together.

The film has quite a few "emotional" parts portrayed in the story and 80% of the time they work. There are other times some of the scenes i felt didn't really pack a strong enough punch and you didn't really feel any sort of emotion towards anyone involved.

I seem to have said this about a lot of films of late but it's true it ran at 3hours 10 minutes including the usual ridiculous promotion before the film gets going but like the staff promised us before entering this film it will not bore you nor does it drag on it really is a pleasure to watch. It really is the sort of film that is halfway to being a masterpiece a lot more could have been done to secure it's place in film history but to be honest it could have been a bad film and it certainly was not that.

I feel a few of the category's it has been nominated in at the Oscars it deserves to win.

Overall it's a wonderful film with a great story backed up with some outstanding performances. Go in with no expectations and it might be one of your all time favourites. I wish i had not grown such high expectations of the film as i might have enjoyed it further. However a second time round i feel is one day in order!

8/10

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site [Japan]

Country:

USA

Language:

English Russian French

Release Date:

25 December 2008 (USA)

Also Known As:

Benjamin Button

Filming Locations:

San Pedro, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$150,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$26,853,816, 28 December 2008

Gross USA:

$127,509,326

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$335,802,786

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, The Kennedy/Marshall Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

166 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.40 : 1