Postcard Perfect Picture : THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON

I never would have imagined that David Fincher,
a director better known for the violent thrillers
Se7en, The Game, Fight Club, and Panic Room,

could come up with a feature as lovely as this;
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
is simply breathtaking; haunting, almost elegiac.

It's one of the finest films I've seen,
and from the buttony opening credits
to the poignant closing montage,

I was, quite simply, mesmerized by this Curious Case.
I'll say no more; all you need to know of the story
is what you already know: Benjamin Button ages backwards.



The pleasure lies in losing yourself in the experience.
This movie should be seen, initially,
and collectively, with an audience, on the wide screen.

Much as I love and adore the medium of DVDs,
to watch this for the first time on a small screen
would be an injustice to Fincher's finest film.



And an injustice to your own inner cinema geek.
Trust me, Benjamin Button is worth your P150.00!!
Every scene is shot postcard pretty,

and Brad Pitt is Brad Pitt; and he does his best work
in films that run for over two and a half hours:
Legends of the Fall and Meet Joe Black come to mind;



and it was a stroke of casting genius to have
lookalikes Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinton together.
Both have never looked so luminous.

After the pain brought about by the MetroManila FlimFlam,
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is the perfect balm.
It opens this Thursday, January 8.











P.S.

As I was watching the movie last night,
(thanks so much to Sionee of Warner Brothers
and Azrael's Merryland for the invite!!!)
I was struck by the similarities between
Benjamin Button and the title character
from another movie that took audiences
on a memorable tour through decades.




WARNING:

Read no further if you haven't seen either film!

The Top 10 Similarities Between
FORREST GUMP and BENJAMIN BUTTON:

1. Both are extremely polite soft-spoken Southern boys;
Forrest is from Georgia, Benjamin from New Orleans.


2. The most influential figure in both their lives?
Dear Old Mom.


3. Both had male sailor-mentors who drank too much.


4. Both had mystic connections to symbols of flight:
Forrest's feather and Button's hummingbird.


5. Both went to war;
Forrest in Vietnam, Button during World War II.


6. Both Forrest and Button worked on small boats.


7. Both found it hard to walk as kids;
Forrest had leg braces, Button had crutches.


8. Both of them travelled around the world.


9. Both met their true loves as children;
both were left by their loves, only to return.
Forrest and Button were both extemely worried
that their kids would not be normal.


10. And oddly enough, this immortal line is said,
word for word, in both movies:

"I Gotta Go Pee!"