Benjamin Button

My wife and I went to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button over the weekend.  I didn't have a ton of expecatations going into the movie, save that a few people have said that it was really good, and that the movie was really long (2hrs 46 mins).  We got to the theater, found our seats, and sat down.

What transpired over the next three hours was the most breathtaking, stupendous piece of filmmaking I have ever seen.  This movie was phenomenal.  I want to be careful with the superlatives, because I don't want to lose the passion of this film in words that get thrown around way too much, but it is hard to describe how this movie touched me without them.

Benjamin Button is a man who was born old and gets younger as he ages.  Simply put, that was enough to get me to the theater.  Eric Roth's screenplay takes this premise from an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story and spins it into a beautiful story that not only chronicles the man's life, but also his love life.  From the moment the screen showed the WB logo (creatively made completely out of buttons), I was transfixed.  I teared up several times during this movie, just because of the story and how happy the character was in spite of his "condition".

All of this pales in compairson to the performace of one Bradley Pitt.  Once I left the theater, I was actually almost mad that this person could exist.  Widely considered as one of the best looking men on the planet, Pitt carries this responsibility well.  Throw in the fact that the guy can act circles around 95% of the acting community, and you start to get upset that one person could do all of this so easily.  His performance was brilliant.  Breathtaking.  So good that I might go find some of his older movies and watch them.  He wouldn't have had to say a word in this film, because his eyes told the whole story.

I imlore you to go see this movie as soon as you possibly can.  If you have pre-teen children or teenagers, take them along.  If they get any message from this movie, it would have been worth it.  David Fincher's direction is superb, interjecting subtle and not-so-subtle humor here and there to keep the story from getting to emotionally heavy.  As my wife and I were leaving the theater, neither of us would speak for fear of bursting into tears.  It was really that great.

On a side note, we watched the Golden Globes last night, and Benjamin Button was up for several awards.  It didn't win any (that I saw) because apparently, Slumdog Millionaire is the greatest movie ever made.  I don't say that with any sarcasm, because if it beat out BB for the awards, it has to be.  So, my wife and I are intending to go see that ASAP, becasue it looks pretty darn good.