Thursday, July 2, 2015

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)


MIMDB score: 8.1
Current IMDB score: 7.8
Director: David Fincher
Main Actors you care about: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Jared Harris (sea captain)

Why I liked it:
So this movie gets a bad rap but as you can see it has a 7.8 on IDMB.  It's good. It's very much like Forrest Gump.  Everyone loves Forrest Gump.  I guess the turn off is the odd novelty of aging backwards since that's not possible.  Really though it's about this guy's life.  I never overly focused on his aging thing.  That's just for an artistic twist to the movie which I actually like.  Same with the humming bird analogy and the sea captain.  I feel like a lot of people find that cheesy and it kind of is but it's just adds to the art the film was trying to achieve.  It isn't a terrible analogy it's just not as well done as the analogies in Forrest Gump.

What stands out:
I love Brad Pitt in this movie.  I think he does really well.  A lot of good, meaningful moments as well.

What I Would Change (if anything):  I don't understand why he leaves at the end.  He could have been a father for a fairly long time it looked like.  For the story of Cate and her daughter it's needed for him to leave but I feel like they could have done something different.

Favorite Line(s)/Scene:  This scene.
"For what it's worth it's never to late or in my case too early to be who ever you want to be. There's no time limit; start whenever you want. You can change or stay the same; there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live life your proud of and if you find that you're not I hope you have the strength to start all over again."
This moment reminds me of when Tom Hanks starts talking to the camera about Jenny dying in Forrest Gump.  This quote and scene is what makes me want to quit my job and run away to travel the world.  It's hard to figure out what is wasting life.  In the end I settle back and say that there's very little part of life that really could be considered a waste.  All experiences will effect your understanding of the world.  Even the experiences you have right outside your front door.

Also the ending scene.  Some people in life stand out at one thing.  It's wonderful when you see it in people.  They love being it and doing it whatever it is.  You can feel and see it in your own life I'm sure.  I think mine is computer programming.  It's so easy and makes so much sense when I'm doing it.  It's kind of a escape from all the other bull crap in life.  It's hard to have that bad of a life when "work" is what distracts you from life.

Similar Movies/TV Shows: You guessed it, Forrest Gump.

"Side" note: One of the many things I think this movie is overlooked for is the deep amount of time spent on analogies that seem to come up short.  I mentioned the humming bird analogy with the sea captain.  The humming bird was used in that analogy instead of other birds partly because it's the only bird in the world that can fly backwards (just like Benjamin).

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