he will become this ----->

oh btw to those who watched the movie...remember the old man who is always saying he got struck by lightning 7 times? they only showed 6 times...or did i miscalculated?

it's 7 times, the last one was before the ending credits.

Watched it for the second time, lol.

i counted 6 including the one b4 the credits. hmm...

anyone can list out each time he kena strike?

I saw this yesterday. I wan to let it linger for a few days before making up my mind, but I thought it was a wonderful film.

I watched it twice and still thought it was 30 minutes too long or rather, they could have used the 30 minutes to tell us about Benjamin Button and his feelings.

I did not feel anything at all through out the show, sure a tug at the heart when Button found out he was going to be a dad because he wouldn't be able to take care of his daughter but that's about it from Button. Second time I felt something was when he yelled out 'You f***ing liars.'

Was he subtle or just plain passive and dull? Oh and his name is Benjamin Button, do we know anything about him?

What do you mean we dont know anything about him? I dont think he was dull. It was not a showy performance, but he did very well as a normal man stuck with an abnormal body. He was a bit cold, and the tone of the film is a little cold, but I think that was deliberate and somehow it works and I really did feel for the characters. When did he yell "you f***ing liars"? I dont think I heard that in the cinema, though I'm positive there were a few minor cuts here and there.

This post has been edited by QuickFire: Feb 23 2009, 05:28 PM

1. I mean exactly what I said. What do we know about Benjamin Button after 2h plus? He basically does nothing, NOTHING interesting in the movie. He observes life and lives it but how did the events that he went through affect him? Where's the character development? Benjamin Button seemed incredibly emotionally void. When 'Momma' died, you'd think that he'll feel something but no, he just stares blankly with Daisy.
2. Why would a normal man stuck with an abnormal body be cold? He showed very little emotion apart when he was caught sneaking out with Daisy at night and the old lady said "You should be ashamed at yourself." He cried and Momma tells him "You're not like other boys."

And I too have a problem when Benjamin Button talked to the lady who taught him piano when he told her that he was aging backwards and she said something along the lines of "I'd feel sorry for you having to watch all your loved ones go." Doesn't aging forward require the same thing? What's with the "struck by lightning seven times?"

What did you make of the hospital scenes? I thought that ruined the movie for me as well. Just when I wanted to know what happened next in Button's life, they stop for a couple of excruciatingly unnecessary tedious minutes before going back to the story.

I believe this is one of those films that for me I didn't need to ask what kind of person he was, what motivates him to do this and that, etc. It feels natural to me. He was a boy/man who wanted to be normal, and despite the extraordinary circumstances he was put in, acted as best he could to be normal. Apart from his appearance, he was not an extraordinary man. He was like us. Besides, I would expect someone who ages backwards to be pretty passive in real life. The film's tone and Benjamin's demeanor can be cold, and as such the surface of the film feels cold, but once you get through it, the film gets through to you. It's one of those "you-get-it-or-you-dont-get-it" things I suppose. And it certainly clicked with me. People say this would be an ordinary movie with the backwards aging taken out, but I dont evaluate films that way, the same way I dont say "Memento would be an ordinary crime film if it werent told in reverse" or "TDK is only as good as Heath Ledger's performance". I do not take things like that away from the film, because it is part of the film, and to have someone age backwards to me is what makes the film unique and should never be taken out of the equation.

Speaking of other films, I understand some of the comparisons with Forrest Gump, but I don't buy all of it. This feels like a very different film. The exterior is colder, the mood/tone much more sombre, and appropriately it is a more contemplative film that Forrest Gump. My first impression is that this is a film I would want to rewatch when I am 40, again when I am 50, 60, etc.

When he catches up with his age in his forties, and he looks his age, I genuinely felt happy for him, and at the same time, I felt sorry for him... for them... because it wouldn't last. It's heartbreaking that you wait 40 years of you life to reach there and to have it disappear so fast after.


I assume she said that because all his loved ones were the old folks at the house since he was raised there, and they would go before he did. He wasn't surrounded by his peers. His only equal was Daisy. The struck by lightning thingy was just a running gag. Funny for the first few times but probably just about overstayed its welcome. Oh btw to the guys above, the first time he talks about it, two instances of the lightning striking him were shown, maybe you guys missed that and thus only counted six?

This I agree to an extent. It (obviously) didn't ruin the movie for me, but it did spoil some of it. The drastic change in setting and colour was distracting, and it affected the flow (particularly early on), and the old lady's (btw, I read she was played by Blanchett, I wouldn't have known otherwise) voice was grating. Also, and this might be just me, but I didn't find her daughter interesting or of much use except to read the diary. The hospital scenes were by far the weakest in the film.

The whole movie isnt as nice as i have expected.

Benjamin Button just feels,emotionless.

But the trouble is for me, it's still an ordinary movie IN SPITE of him aging backwards which was/is my main gripe (make up aside). I mean, a person observing life, seeing people die and falling in love could be done with a man aging forwards. So why introduce the concept of aging backwards besides showing that it could be done on screen? Though not in the same category, it was like watching The Nutty Professor.

Contemplative? What did you get out of the movie? All I got was: WTF?!

He loved Daisy? I really didn't sense it especially how he screwed with one, two.....twenty, twenty-one women over the years as he 'longed' to be with Daisy. So I didn't really sense the love Button had for Daisy and when Button left Daisy, all she did was stare at him. What was she thinking?

The concept of two people aging differently having to wait for forty years to be together should be tragic, sad and heartwarming but no, it's COLD - as you mentioned. It shouldn't feel that way, at least to me. And you would think that love would be better expressed rather than:-

Daisy: Will you sleep with me?
Button: Absolutely.

I've not come across a movie where I cared so little about the title character, more so when it's an Academy Award nominated film.

Love? How could Button love people he had no connection with. They were just detached from him (too old and too young) bar the piano teacher. You may argue they were parental figures but I'd disagree. They were annoyed by him wheeling in and out of the house in his wheelchair and they certainly were annoyed with him playing with the forks and knifes at the dinner table, showing they didn't like him much. And the two deaths he was supposed to have connection with (piano teacher and Momma), he felt nothing.

I didn't get the gag, completely and utterly pointless and added to a painfully long running time. Make it a 2 hour film and perhaps, it would have been better. 2h 45m seemed a desperate attempt to seem 'epic.'

What was the purpose of including Katrina in the narration? Made no sense to me.

This post has been edited by kobe8byrant: Feb 23 2009, 07:55 PM

I wont disagree that he looked emotionless, but I suspect it is in part subtlety and part David Fincher. Fincher's direction, the visuals and the film's tone complemented Pitt's performance very well. How much was it due to subtlety (or not)? I dont know.

I thought it was one of very few films which actually made me think about life and death and impermanence and to cherish what you have now. It might have only made me think of these fleetingly, but a film that accomplishes this at least succeeds in something. I dont know about you, but the seeing someone age backwards is to me very fascinating. I liked that the film didnt de-age Benjamin after each scene; Rather it really takes its time and slowly de-ages him. I liked that. Maybe you didnt think much of the concept, but I totally bought into the (novel) idea.


Actually that is another one of my problems, not that he screwed with many women, but that the film didn't put enough emphasis on the bond between them in the first half of the film, and so when they finally did come together the connection wasn't as strong as it could have been. There was chemistry, and the love was more authentic than the paper-thin Jamal-Latika love in Slumdog, but I think the film needs some scenes with both of them together, whether as children or adults, to really make us feel the bond. in short, I would have liked if they actually started something earlier, rather than so late, in the film.

I dont know why she didnt stop him from leaving. Maybe she felt it was right... I dont know. But it didn't bother me. And it was probably the right thing to do. Leave when she doesnt remember you and hand the responsibilities as a father to someone else before she grows up and remembers him. Hard to do, but probably correct, which makes me feel even sorrier for him.

Parents feel the same way about their children all the time I bet.

Feel free to disagree with me, but the only people he had when he was a child were the old people and adults at the home, and I think he would have felt some love or affection for them.

I liked the gag the first few times. After that it became repetitive. They should have at least made the lightning strike in a more creative manner.

The film was a little too long, in particular I felt the scenes with Tilda Swinton could be cut, but on the whole I wasn't bored.



Neither do I. Which is another reason why I do not like the hospital scenes. It was yet another distraction which took me away from the main story and which served no apparent purpose. Seems to me they wanted the hurricane to have an excuse to have water wash over the clock in the end.

The film isn't perfect... far from it. It isnt a masterpiece. But at the moment I do think it's a great film, at the very least a film with ambition that succeeds in places. Could it have been a better film? For sure, but until someone actually manages to come up with that film, I'm happy with this.

This post has been edited by QuickFire: Feb 23 2009, 08:03 PM

Emotionless =/= subtlety.
Yes, they didn't de-age after each scene but the transition from teenager to boy was definitely anything but slow de-aging. What happened in between would have been fun, seeing Button cope with Daisy being erased from his memory. Could you imagine the pain of him writing his memories in a diary to remember it? I would have liked to see something like that.

I think I made my point when I edited my post earlier (refer to above) but I liked Jamal-Latika more for the reason there was a sense of longing and fulfillment when he got her. It was certainly more wholesome to see two people go through hell to be together risking it all (millions of dollars and their lives) to be together than

Daisy: Will you sleep with me?
Button: Absolutely.

Where was the sense of longing we should have gotten from the scenes involving Blanchett and Pitt. Just as you didn't get Jamal-Latika, I didn't get Button-Daisy.


With its problems (overly long, underdeveloped characters and story), it's still a great film? I would have no problems if this movie was labeled a good film but I feel there's a great injustice when it's nominated over TDK for Best Picture.

---

Added on February 23, 2009, 8:21 pm@ watching Mickey Rouke interviewed by Dominic Wong. He looks annoyed when he's called Penn's friend

This post has been edited by kobe8byrant: Feb 23 2009, 08:22 PM

watched this movie 2 nights ago after being bombarded by good reviews from my friends.. didnt know it's such a loooooooooooong movie, I nearly fell asleep when it almost came to an end, coz the movie started at 12.45am..

overall i really like the movie, altho it's kinda ridiculous for such a story.. i find it rather touching, and has a meaningful storyline.. just didn't quite the part when Benjamin started getting younger though..

maybe i have low expectation of movie but this film was ok with me.

anways i didnt like how pitt can be a teenager then become a kind and then baby. i rather have it pitt still have the teenager body but losing his brain capacity.

he slept with the other women even though he loved daisy is normal. he thinks he and daisy is no more. what for he sit at home and do nothing when he has this strapping hunky body. he would go bang as much women as he wanted.

nice movie ?

not bad but be prepared to have enough of rest b4 u wanna watch this

eh.. whats the ending of the story ? HEHE
last week went to gsc midvalley watch this movie..
while watching pass half mile suddenly they having technical problem..
frust then walkout lorr...

I watched this and thought it was quite nice. Something different to see a person grow backwards. Nowadays hard to find interesting movies lah.

Hmm.. he shouldn't have came back at the end of the movie. It spoils the mysterious part of how it ends if you grow younger.

yeah..i don't really like the ending of the movie.. a bit predictable