Benjamin Button

I saw this movie over the weekend and since many people I know have been raving about it, I'd like to share what I thought about the movie.

To my friends who swooned over this, I'm sorry, Brad Pitt just doesn't do it for me.   The movie to me felt like a long progression towards waiting for the caterpillar to metamorphose into a butterfly.  Everyone in the movie house seemed like they were waiting for the climax where Brad Pitt would emerge in his "Sexiest Man Alive" self.  So to me, the movie is a showcase of Brad Pitt's good looks. My film major friend told me that because Brad is a celebrity (no, he is THE celebrity), viewers just get starstruck by him.  It's very hard to see the acting behind the celebrity-hood.  Maybe if they casted somebody who is not type-casted as that good-looking, the movie would have connected with me more.

But surprise, surprise for Cate Blanchett.  I never realized how beautiful she was, especially with a warmer hair color.  She is no longer the pale, impassive Galadriel in my eyes.   

The movie is just a little under 3 hours and it did feel like it, especially with a full bladder (I shouldn't have drunk that much soda prior to the screening).   There were a lot of Forrest Gump moments too and I didn't really like the story about the man being struck by lightning 7 times.  It was a vain attempt to try to make the film light and funny, so again, sorry, it just didn't connect with me. 

Fortunately, the movie has a good plot,  thanks to the short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald.  I haven't read that piece and I'm pretty sure if I did, I would have been disappointed by the movie all the more.   Nonetheless, the story certainly is a curious case, and at least, the movie lived up to its title.

One or two lines in the movie struck me though, and I hope I remember them right:

"If you do not lose people, then you wouldn't know how important they are"

 and

"Life is measured by opportunities, even those that you miss"

The movie is still worth seeing especially for the visual effects.  I'd give it a 2.5 out of 5 stars. 

Photo courtesy of Nylon Mag.