"Button" begins with a framing device that has a very old and dying Daisy (Blanchett under a lot of makeup) being read to from Benjamin's diary by her daughter Caroline (Julia Ormond). Placing these scenes in a New Orleans hospital ominously menaced by Hurricane Katrina is but one of the film's many puzzling choices.
Benjamin's birth in 1919 deeply disturbs his father Thomas (Jason Flemyng), who abandons the child with the face of an ancient on the steps of a nursing home where the generous Queenie (Taraji P. Henson) is in charge. Declaring that the infant may be "as ugly as an old pot, but he's still a child of God," she decides to raise him as her own and proceeds to do so.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Saturday, December 27, 2008 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 40 words Type of Material: Correction
'Benjamin Button': A photograph of a scene in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" on the cover of Thursday's Calendar section was incorrectly attributed to Digital Domain /Paramount Pictures. It should have been credited to Dan Holland / Paramount Pictures.
As Benjamin grows into childhood, he still has the look and infirmities of a very old man. To show that on screen, the film resorts to digital wizardry, to at times placing Pitt's computer-aged face on the bodies of actors who play him at the early stages of his life.
While that bit of technical virtuosity is supposed to make us ponder the mysteries of mortality, actually seeing these various Buttons plays as grotesque and gimmicky, leading to speculation that the chance to do something bizarre and unsettling is what attracted Fincher to the project in the first place.
A lot of things happen to young Benjamin growing up in New Orleans, from chatting with a Pygmy to visiting a bordello, but except for his life-changing meeting with young Daisy (Elle Fanning), each event seems more arbitrary than the last. When he decides to go to sea, it's anyone's guess why he ends up in Murmansk and has an affair with an unhappily married woman (the always reliable Tilda Swinton). Maybe the opportunity to go even icier was more than anyone could resist.
When Benjamin and Daisy, who's been in New York studying dance with George Balanchine (don't ask), finally hit those years when they can play their real ages, it's a relief to see, but not enough of a relief to save this film. "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" leaves you colder than it should, and it shouldn't leave you cold at all.
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kenneth.turan@latimes.com
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'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'
MPAA rating: PG-13 rating for brief war violence, sexual content, language and smoking
Running time: 2 hours, 47 minutes
Playing: In general release
