The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (2008/Paramount/Criterion Blu-ray + DVD Sets)
Picture: B/C+
Sound: B/B- Extras: B- Film: B-
For many years, David Fincher was considered an alternate
voice of some note in mainstream filmmaking and even worthy of Kubrick’s work,
but as he has been going for all-digital feature production, there has been a
noticeable shift in his approach. You
can see it when you compare two of his best similar features: Se7en and Zodiac. But with The Curious
Case Of Benjamin Button (2008), a
shift in a different direction that began to show itself in Panic Room
has bloomed here and with mixed results.
At 165 minutes, this story is slow to unfold and wants to
have a deliberately slow pace so the storyline can be an experience and work on
its audience. Fincher once again teams
up with Brad Pitt, who is really good in this film as the title character until
his character turns into… Brad Pitt.
Essentially, the film is not unlike Forrest
Gump or Falling Down in that it
is about a man who travels through American history, the first unaffected by
it, the second very much affected by it.
The Eric Roth/Robin Swicord adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald short
story is about a man in an earlier history who is born in what seems like a
birth defect, grows to be a senior citizen, then ages backwards. There is the man (Elias Koteas) who builds a
clock that goes backwards and time twisted becomes a theme, along with history
challenged and racism (i.e., ideas counter to it) are also at the heart of this
story.
Cate Blanchett plays the love in his life, Julia Ormond is
the woman who learns of the upside down history in flashback and in a way that
is too safe on some level (especially for a Fincher film), while Taraji P.
Henson, Tilda Swinton, Jason Flemyng, Jared Harris and an amazing cast across
the board to deliver fine performances.
When I first saw it, I enjoyed it and was impressed, yet there was
something that was not settled with me and that is how it is the least bold of
Fincher’s films, as if one of his many endings that do not know how to end a
film was expanded into most of what is here.
Then there is the virtual world he wants to create that is
contrary to most of his films and it is not an improvement in any major
way. If anything, the digital world he
is forging seems like a step backwards and may make him more acceptable to
Hollywood (this is his most successful work at awards time) but is atypical of
some key themes in his work. They may be
here, but are secondary to the virtual Fincher that has arisen. Whether this is just an anomaly is another
story, but Fincher is an auteur and this does not change that. Is he abandoning himself, his themes or
trying to go into new directions and not repeat himself?
As for the content of the story, it is interesting enough
and this is worth seeing once, though you may not want to sit through it again,
so be well-rested in case you have the same reaction this writer did. Then again, you might like it more.
The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image was
mostly recreated in digital High Definition, though some scenes were still shot
in 35mm film. Like the Wall-E Blu-ray, there are shots here
that looked better when I saw them in 35mm film, but the transfer is faithful
to the digital work. Too bad there is
more motion blur here and detail issues than when I saw it in 35mm, so don’t
expect this to look like Cars and
for that matter, I thought Blu-rays of HD shoots like The Bank Job, Before The
Devil Knows You’re Dead and Youth Without
Youth looked better, though Director of Photography Claudio Miranda is
going for a sepia-toned style and faked scratched film are intended to look
older. The anamorphically enhanced DVD
was weaker in all departments, including Video Black and the sepia looks a bit
paler since DVD cannot handle Video Red like Blu-ray.
The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio lossless) 5.1 mix was remixed
for home theaters and it does not sound as good as it did in my 35mm
presentation, while the Dolby Digital 5.1 in both cases is even that much
weaker. Criterion does Dolby 5.1 as well
as anyone, but the sound here has ambience and some good surrounds, yet is not
as good as I remembered it and the DTS exclusive to the Blu-ray is better, but
not the revelation I was expecting. Alexandre
Desplat’s score is a highlight of the mix.
Extras in both formats include several still galleries,
three making of featurettes covering costumes, art direction and
storyboarding), Pitt & Blanchett interviews, Fincher audio commentary, two
pieces on the visual effects and make-up and a booklet inside the case with
tech information and an essay by Kent Smith.
Criterion has issued Fincher films before (The Game was LaserDisc-only so far and Se7en was issued directly by New Line
with all the Criterion extras on New Line DVD) but this is the first one to
make it to DVD by them and certainly the first on Blu-ray. They did a great job and now you can see for
yourself.
- Nicholas Sheffo
