Blu-ray Review: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Written by: Eric Roth with a screen story by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord
Based on the Short Story by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Directed by: David Fincher
Starring: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Taraji P. Henson, Julia Ormond, Jason Flemyng, Elias Koteas, and Tilda Swinton

Blu-ray specs:
2.40:1 Aspect Ratio
1080P High Definition
5.1 Dolby Digital, also features French and Spanish dubbed soundtracks
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing and optional English, French, and Spanish subtitles.

Bonus Features: Criterion Edition includes Director Approved Special Features on a 2 disc set. Interviews with brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, Audio commentary from David Fincher, Footage revealing state of the art make up and visual effects, Step-by step examination of the motion capture process aging Brad Pitt, In-depth exploration of Davind Fincher's creative process on set, interview with composer Alexandre Desplat, featurettes on storyboards costumes, and art direction, still galleries, and an essay by film critic Kent Jones.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a ten time Oscar nominated tale of a boy who is born an old man who then ages in reverse. It's hard to imagine why this movie received so many critical accolades and award nominations (69 if IMDB is accurate.) because it's not that great. It has some amazing things about it but as a whole, it's rather ordinary. It's also not worthy of the Criterion treatment it gets with this release. There were far better films worthy of a release as robust as this one. I just wish I knew why this film was chosen.

Click the Rawr! for the full review.


A lot of people seemed to compare this movie with Forrest Gump. I can see that I guess as both seem to chronicle the journeys of unusual protagonists, but I was more reminded of Interview With The Vampire except without the horror and gore. I guess it depends on who watches it. You could probably think of any number of movies that Benjamin Button is similar to. It doesn't come across as terribly original, nor terribly interesting.

My talents as a critic seem to fail me here. I can't pinpoint exactly what it is I didn't like about the movie. Brad Pitt was great but I think that might be a result of the make up effects more than him. I say that because I enjoyed his character more when he was a wrinkly kid more than when he was a de-aging adult. It seemed as though as he grew older/younger the charm of the character seemed to evaporate. The rest of the cast turned in good performances as well. I will say that I did not give one care about Cate Blanchett's character. I really didn't care what happened to her.

I can say that the film looked beautiful. It's shot and directed extremely well. I would expect nothing less from David Fincher. I enjoyed the aging effect they put on some of the flashbacks. Blu-ray only seems to increase the beauty of the film. It's a shame that I didn't love this film as much as I wanted to. When I first saw the trailer I was captivated by it but in the end, I just found it to be boring and uninteresting.

This release is a part of the Criterion Collection which is famous for comprehensive and robust DVD and now Blu-ray release for great films. Personally, I think this is wasted on this film. The large number of features we get here prove useless because I wasn't interested in the film enough to care about them. We get loads of information about the film and the effects but I just didn't care about any of it. Criterion should have given this treatment to Slumdog Millionaire which is a vastly superior film to Benjamin Button.

A movie that I was expecting to be a grand epic full of great characters turned out to be a lackluster way to lose almost 3 hours of my day. I really really wanted to love this movie. I was ready to be wowed. Instead, I found myself bored. Besides the atmosphere of this film, nothing really stood out to me. Not even the score, which I am hard pressed to remember a single note of.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is worth a watch for its technical achievements alone. It seems to lack and emotional substance or any ability to make you give a lick for any of the characters but the look and the atmosphere may just be worth the price of admission.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is available now on Blu-ray and DVD.