On The Button

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Directed by David Fincher
Screenplay by Eric Roth
Five Tablespoons of Bosco

Reviewed by Allen Bacon, Editor, The Daily Bosco

Out of all the movies I saw this Holiday season, nothing captured my imagination more than The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

If you're looking for a film adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald short story from the 1930's you would be in the wrong place. Only the idea...A baby with a defect born in his 70's that ages backwards...is the same. Everything else is from the screenwriting genius of Eric Roth.

Roth adapted Forest Gump so this movie has a lot of "Gumpish" feel to it. The life lessons...the eyewitness accounts of history...the effecting of historical events...a narration from a main character....the fact it takes place primarily in the south...

For me, the ideas from this movie on aging and the way that we embrace the different stages of our lives and our relationships with others really hit home. I keep on thinking about how the "old" Benjamin approached everything from a perspective of looking at life with this curiosity...as if looking at things for the first time. I hope I can do that when I enter the later stages of my life.

I don't know if Eric Roth does this on purpose but he spawns a whole spin-off industry from his movies. Think about how successful Bubba Gump Shrimp became after Forrest Gump. Just watch...tee shirts and hats with Button's Buttons will be popping out (pardon the pun).

Excellent directing by David Fincher here and the acting of Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt will garner Academy Award consideration I'm sure. The special effects in the movie, are well...special. When you think about it, it would have been hard to make this movie at an earlier time..say even ten years ago... and have it look right.

At approaching three hours, the movie is a little long but then I got to thinking how else would the movieviewer feel the effects of a long and prosperous life? You actually feel like you've lived the life after you get out of the theater...the story couldn't really be told in less than two hours and have the same effect.

The Bosco Rating System is based on a scale of 1-5, five being best.