By Erica Balanc
Staff Writer
My personal misconception about The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was that the main character, Benjamin Button (played by Brad Pitt in his finest performance to date), a man who was born old and grows younger, would be something like “Elwood P. Dowd” in Harvey (1950). They are similar in certain aspects: they are both “oh so pleasant” (though it didn’t seem much like an option for Benjamin, he just was), and people find them to be curious. What I had expected of Benjamin was that, like Dowd, his unique way of living would provide him with a gift that would rub off on people. But in Benjamin Button, Benjamin is the one doing the learning, just like the rest of us.
Benjamin and Daisy share an intimate moment.
The difference is physical; his mind when he was born old was the mind of a baby, and as his body grows younger, he mentally ages just like any other human being. But it’s enough of a difference to alter the way he can live his life. As he wrote, he’ll die ultimately the way he was born: alone. How can he be expected to have a family and be a father while he is physically turning into a child? Well technically he could, as proven in the beginning of the film (the other way around). He’ll just look different. But the isolation that he feels in the beginning of the film, as a child in an old man’s body, is a hard-to-bear state of being that he dreads, as his body gets younger and his mind feels so much older.
When Benjamin is young (appearing old), a woman who is teaching him piano tells him “It’s not about how well you play, it’s how you feel when you play it.” Benjamin’s “unusual circumstances” make his life different, but he knows that like so many of the people around him, he too will die. What is important is how he feels as he lives. He experiences all the “firsts” that people experience: his first job, his first drink, his first experience with a woman. His most noticeable first is when he falls in love. The episode is a “brief encounter” with a married woman (played wonderfully by Tilda Swinton) staying in the same hotel as him. Every night, while everyone else is sleeping, they spend time together, at first just talking. These nocturnal rendezvous (somewhat backwards) seem to suit Benjamin just perfectly. However, like so much else in life, as Benjamin realizes, they don’t last.
Like many things that the audience expects when viewing Benjamin Button, finally being with Daisy (played by Cate Blanchett) is inevitable for Benjamin. It doesn’t happen as quickly as one would expect, however. For a while, Daisy is actually quite annoying and immature, and though it is obvious that the two want one another, it only happens when it is meant to. Daisy comments on how, when they are together, they are almost the same age. It’s both interesting and extremely sad to see that their happiest time together is when they look their best. It’s a short window of time that people in the audience either haven’t reached yet, are experiencing, or can only reflect on. It’s the period of time in the film where Pitt isn’t wearing make-up to age him or make him look younger, and it feels like a strange episode that comes and goes quickly.
It’s hard to say how Benjamin Button “feels” as he lives. We know that he feels different and lonely, but was his life a happy one? There are times when we know he must be happy, like when he is spending time with Daisy in their duplex. The fact that film chronicles a life through a serious of episodes only emphasizes Benjamin’s thought that nothing lasts. When the film is over, it’s not hard to question what deep message Benjamin Button had to offer. A line from Breakfast at Tiffany’s pops up in my head: “Okay, life’s a fact.” You can grow backwards like Benjamin Button, but life remains a fact.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button wins for its creativity, its amazing performance by Brad Pitt (it will be the role his is always remembered for), its beautiful score, its makeup, its special effects (two notable scenes are when soldiers of WWI are seen moving backwards on the battlefield, and a scene during WWII when the tugboat Benjamin is on is attacked), and its touching portrayal of how life works.
