Button’s Up! (Con’t)
The poignancy of the show stayed with me long after I trudged back home and into bed.
In fact TCCOBB turned out to be so affecting I spent much of the night being ruminant and contemplative about life and love, and I’m really not that type.
Pitt’s performance was disarming in the sense of how much of an anti-protagonist his portrayal of Benjamin Button was, considering the title of the movie.
I recall the adage –
“(a) some people make things happen,
(b) some people watch things happen and
(c) some people wonder what happened.”
While we are used to our lead characters playing the role of (a), Benjamin was really more of (b) and that’s why I was kinda like, (c).
That being said, some of the filmwork in TCCOBB is simply astounding and captures some of the most memorable scenes I’ve witnessed in my entire (albeit short) career as a cinematographic-voyeur (for you non-industry types out there, that translates to “movie-goer”).
Benjamin’s regeneration and subsequent regression from a withered crinkly old man into a doe-eyed infant is not the only thing in reverse; the 146min-long adaption bucks the novel-to-screen trend of slicing and dicing the narrative and actually expands on Scott Fizgerald’s six-page short story.
From a dorky geek trapped alarmingly in a frail and dwarfish frame, Benjamin grows increasingly assured as he reaches his prime (circa real Pitt’s era) and it is there when he sweeps childhood sweetheart Daisy (played resplendently by an ageless Cate Blanchett) off her feet in a whirlwind but ultimately ephemeral romance.
Fact is, the histrionics of TCCOB is not found in any particular scene or setpiece a la Forrest Gump but rather surfaces as a permeating sense of heartbreak for the inevitable end.
This will probably be a polarizing film for most critics, but I think we’ve got a keeper here and I’m thinking, Casablanca of the 21st century.
