As a matter of fact, I didn’t want to publish எனி movie reviews in my blog, even though I liked reviewing movies. I made this decision to the stay away from the“masala stuff” and also due to the sheer volume of movies which I am watching nowadays. But, the Curious case of Benjamin Button just kindled the interest in me to write my views on the movie rather than a review. So I take an exception this time and write this review or rather on how I read this movie.
The movie starts with an elderly Blanchett, in her deathbed having her last conversation with her daughter. She starts with a cryptic story of a mysterious Blind Horologist, who designs a clock running backwards, in the hope it will bring back his son who was wasted in The Great War (World War I, was called the Great War before World War 2 Occurred).
Even though the Clockmaker, do not make much impact on the storyline, I found the character quite amazing. It brought to the fore, the human feeling of escaping into the past, when faced with some terrible confusion, but still knowing for sure that you cannot reclaim or relive what has already happened. We live those days in our minds, we think about them and long for them knowing for sure that it is not possible to expect a repeat of the good times in life. Even though the hope of this Horologist, in that he expected to travel back into the good times of his life which he spent with his son by designing a backward running clock, was an extreme hope. The entire movie is about extreme situations which brining out some of the strongest human emotional disturbances to the surface with nuggets of philosophy. And this character sets the tone running for the entire movie.
Moving away from the Clockmaker to Cate Blanchett in her Deathbed, she asks her daughter to read her the diary of a Benjamin Button, whom the daughter hardly knows. (I don’t publish Spoilers in my reviews). The diary stats with the curious birth of Benjamin at the end of the Great War.
The story is all about Benjamin Button, played by Brad Pitt, born with the physical appearance of an 86 year old man, abandoned by his father after his mother’s obstetrical death. Curiously Benjamin grows up or in fact grows down at a retirement home. Yes, Benjamin starts getting biologically younger, as time passes, his biological clock runs backward. Brad Pitt, has done a wonderful job, playing the role of a old man and moving to that of a teenager. Kudos to the Gregg Cannom, for the excellent make up.
The Entire story is about how Benjamin, grows younger with time, and is a kind of a biography. What kindled my curiosity, was the narration, it does not give anybody any impression of a miracle but portrays it as a story of growing up only to realize you are different from the others. I found this interesting as I saw this as an extreme portrayal of the uniqueness of life; no two lives are similar in nature; No two problems are similar; The same decisions will not lead to the same results. Of course, Benjamin was an extreme depiction of the uniqueness, but it is very intelligent creativity.
I particularly liked the definition of the term “Accident” given by the director, as a series of minor unrelated incidents which we ignore as leading to the life changing impact. Also he explains the inability of human cognizance to do anything about the accidental situations.
Towards the end, the movie also portrays the various roles played by different people around you and the uniqueness of these roles. Concluding the movie with the note of uniqueness, this actually runs throughout the movie.
Benjamin Button does make one Curious.
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