The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Aptly for a film so concerned with time, Button is 13 minutes shy of three hours and just flies by. If this is Fincher selling out, can he sell out more often please?

Superbly made and winningly acted by Brad Pitt in his most impressive outing to date.

It's long, like life, but like life it continually fascinates.

Perhaps the movie might have made more sense if the actors could have taken each other's roles: Pitt always seems light and ageless, while Blanchett never seems to have been young.

At its most profound, Benjamin Button isn't about anything more important than Pitt's very handsomeness, which, for a surprising stretch of time, is a wonderful subject for study.

Often astonishingly beautiful, but in a way that's the problem: You wonder what visionaries such as Tim Burton or Michel Gondry might have done with the material. As it is, "Benjamin Button" is little more than "Gump" by way of "Dorian Gray." It plays too safe when it should be letting its freak flag fly.

The movie's excruciating length is without dramatic or thematic justification.

I loved this movie, such an incredible story but at the same time so human, warm and sad

Benjamin Button told an unbelievable story with acting that was superb but what was lacking was something to be felt after its over two and half hour length. The movie passed all measures with story, acting, score and scenery but never pushed the limits to make it excellent.

First of all, I don't think the realist elements have done good to this movie. I mean, if the protagonist is meant to be fantastic why is it necessary for us to know when he was born, where is he going, what (real) wars he fought? Superman is like this movie's protagonist, he defies natural laws, like gravity for example. Benjamin Button is doing the same thing with biological laws when he rejuvenates, but despite the realistic context where he is placed, no-one seems to be so affected by his unusual nature (and that makes realistic characters behave artificially). Just pay some attention to the title: The curious case..., why case? "Cases" exist only in reality. If the movie would have dwelled in the fantastic, fictional, or whatever you call it domain of the narrative it certainly had been better. Secondly, and more important, my opinion is that this movie doesn't eventually say much. During the almost three hours length I questioned myself about Benjamin's nature and what philosophical facts should it reveal. But as I tried and tried to build-up my logic I couldn't reach any destination. In fact, Benjamin looked like a simple, ordinary men that lives his life from start to end. He's different from us only because his appearance evolves from old men to infant child. But he is born a child and mentally he's just like us (as he admits). All my respect to everyone in the production crew because they made a very well-done job, from special effects to acting performances. The story is the major problem here.

This was too weird for my taste. I didn't like when near the end that shows Benjamin died. I didn't read the book and I have no interest of reading it. Personally, is not my favorite.

Benjamin Button is well directed, well lit and filled with some beautiful imagery. Almost everything else is a problem. There are several dramatic moments in the film, enough to fool an audience into thinking that something profound is happening. But when you start asking the "why's?" the entire premise breaks down and the film has no answers. The events that unfold have no purpose, other than to create an "earnest" atmosphere. The characters are portrayed in a monotonous and self-obsessed manner and Cate Blanchett, despite here far-fetched talent, turns out to be the most annoying character on screen. The aspect of Button that separates it from most nonsensical melodramas of its sort is that, at its centre it's about a man living life backwards. The most disappointing part of it is that, after watching the movie, I learnt almost nothing about it, certainly not anything I couldn't have predicted myself. Button is no more than a sappy and pretentious remake of Forrest Gump, the only difference is that it has been done backwards this time.