The Curious History of Benjamin Button by David Fincher - Essay Example

?The Curious Case of Benjamin Button The 2008 fantasy film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, beautifully narrates the story of a man who was bornwith features of an 80-years-old and starts aging in the reverse direction. The film, directed by David Fincher, stars some of the legendary actors such as Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. The film begins with elderly Daisy narrating, while on her deathbed, the making of a backward running clock by Mr. Gateau in 1918 to her daughter Caroline. She then asks Caroline to read from the diary of a lifelong friend named Benjamin. Benjamin, through his diary, tells the story of his extraordinary life. He never had the opportunity to see his mother as she died soon after his birth. His father, Mr. Thomas Button, horrified by his elderly features, abandoned him right away at the doorsteps of a retirement home. A kindhearted black woman, Queenie, then took the responsibility and raised him all along. He soon realized that instead of growing older, he was aging in the opposite direction. He met a beautiful little girl, Daisy, who later becomes the love of his life. At times, several events break them apart. He went to Murmansk where he had an affair with a married woman, Elizabeth Abbott. He also had the opportunity to witness war when on the Chelsea ship crew. Later on, Thomas Button revealed that he was Benjamin’s real father, and left him all his possessions upon death. Growing through age in the opposite directions, Benjamin and Daisy meet up again in their forties. It was then when Daisy gave birth to a girl named Caroline. Soon after her birth, Benjamin realized that she needs a father who would age with her and leaves them. However, he visited them after a long time when he had grown up into a boy. He later dies as an infant in Daisy’s lap. The ending of the film depicts the replacement of the clock at railway station (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button). Although the film is quite long, it manages to keep one’s interest throughout. It is an emotionally and visually rich piece of art, which comprises a number of distinct light and dark themes. The film appreciates the gift of life in a number of events. Although Benjamin was born old, people at the retirement home socially accepted him. He was also lucky enough to find the love of his life at an early age. He managed to get a decent job on the ship and had an affair with a beautiful woman. He survived war and had a beautiful daughter like other normal people. Another major theme was the desire of man to reverse time without realizing the consequences. The depiction of a backward running clock at the very beginning of the film was a beautiful illustration of this concept. He witnessed more and more deaths, as he grew younger with time. It was not possible for him to share the joys of life with his only daughter, Caroline. Through his narrative, Benjamin also tries to tell that no matter how hard the circumstances, a person can be what he wants to be. The scene portraying abandoning of Benjamin by his father due to ugly appearance reveals the darker side of human nature. Everyone dies eventually. Though he was born different, his aging in the opposite direction never favored him to overcome time. Barsam and Monahan have noted the commonality of a narrative as, “even those narrative films bearing an overt ideological message or a dark theme are designed to engage an audience with a story” (65). As this film is a narration of a life story, all these themes including many other experiences of joy and sadness succeeded in keeping the audience captured. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a fantasy drama employing a narrative structure. According to Barsam and Monahan, a narrative is, “structured into acts that establish, develop, and resolve character conflict” (28). Although multifaceted storytelling over limited course of time is quite complicated, the director made an excellent effort to maintain conformity in the story structure. The sequence of events in the movie aimed to keep intrigue and mystery alive throughout the film. For instance, Caroline was astonished to discover that she was the daughter of Benjamin, later in the narrative. The screenplay writer, Eric Roth, knew that if Daisy tells her about it earlier, the audience would probably lose interest. The continuity and organization of the story maintain viewer’s expectations. Although Benjamin is an unrealistic character, the film is quite verisimilar in nature as it succeeds in convincing the audience about his real existence. The director also attempts to create this imagination in viewer’s mind when Caroline asks Daisy, earlier in the story, if any of it was true. The old or young appearance of actors would not have been possible without the incredible work of the makeup artists. For instance, the old appearance of Cate Blanchett (Daisy) on her deathbed never reveals her true age and is simply flawless. Fincher also took full advantage of the modern techniques such as computer-generated imagery. In order to create illusion about aging of Benjamin in the backward direction, the director used electronic special effects. Visual artist took photographs of Brad Pitt’s various facial expressions and created images to project him as growing younger. Alterations in the facial elements such as skin and hair served this purpose. Moreover, the director used photographs of various body actors to portray the differences in body posture with age. The digital merging of both the images afterwards created the final product capable of posing as younger and older Button (Barsam and Monahan, 264). This also reveals that many real actors on the screen are often invisible to the general audience. They never receive the credit for their acting because people are usually too absorbed to notice their presence. Although celebrated actors have the power to attract audience, their selection according to respective roles is of central importance to the success of a film. The presence of film acclaimed actors in this film such as Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett were a positive step to ensure its success. It is because of the precise calibration of their voice, gestures and movements to give a realistic impression. Their extraordinary effort in playing the roles of Benjamin and Daisy speaks for itself in the film. In the words of Barsam and Monahan, “One definition of great acting is that it should look effortless -- an achievement that takes talent, training, discipline, experience, and hard work” (275). Benjamin was a quiet character and Brad Pitt probably had not enough trouble to perform this role. However, he played his part well while also narrating the movie. Comparatively, Cate Blanchett played a rather deep and complex character of Daisy, which demanded charismatic excellence and obsessive commitment. The acting of Benjamin’s mother, Taraji P. Henson, was also unique and entertaining. Her lovely warm acting greatly helped to fill the missing delight in the film. As Barsam and Monahan stated that, “the lighting also helps create the meaning” (305), Fincher has made extensive use of special lighting effects to portray different events and themes. Most of the film has dark effects to enhance the elements of sadness in the story. However, the director has used slight lighting effects at times to depict events of joyfulness and love. The story also brings realistic touch by including depiction of events such as Hurricane Katrina and Second World War. These events extensively helped to maintain the cold atmosphere while Caroline was narrating the film. The closing of the movie, however, was not as interesting as the beginning. The portrayal of certain unrealistic themes spoiled the taste of the entire film eventually. The chief ambiguity arose when Benjamin was growing into a baby. A viewer can accept the increase in size, but may not buy reduction at all. The film could have accomplished a better ending if Benjamin had died of an accident, or a disease, or left to the audience’s discretion. It is simply evident that filmmaker was rather unsuccessful to make the final impression. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is an emotionally rich, moving, and fascinating masterpiece film by David Fincher. The film depicts the importance of life and consequences of unnatural human desires. Analysis of various elements of the film reveals that it was a good effort to maintain wholeness and unity among various characters and events. The actors looked quite natural while performing their roles. They were also exceptional regarding their appearance, voice, movements and gestures. Despite of the longer runtime, it possessed the entire magic essential to hold viewer’s attention. The use of modern technology made it possible to create such a fantasy film flawlessly. However, viewers have also criticized the film and shown disappointment over its poor ending. A little more research on the closing part would have earned the crew a lot more respect. References The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Dir. David Fincher. Perf. Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Tarji P. Henson and Tilda Swinton. Paramount Pictures/Warner Brothers, 2008. DVD. Barsam, Richard and Dave Monahan. Looking At Movies: An introduction to Film. 3rd ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2010. Print. ” Read More