The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

What follows is the start of my new “culture blog.” In short, I’m going to try to record films, bands, shows, albums, books and various other things I see, hear, read or watch. More or less. Oh, and there’s probably spoilers.

Sam and I went tonight to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button this evening, and I have to say, it was good. Not great, good. The story was somewhat solid, provided you could suspend disbelief*, and the visual effects were stunning. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about the framing of the story. For those who don’t know, it’s based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby) and I’m pretty sure that at no point did Fitzgerald’s original include a daughter reading Benjamin’s diary to her dying mother during Hurricane Katrina. The device just didn’t quite work for me. It seemed a little forced. Overall it was very entertaining, and though I never felt like it was dragging, it could have stood a bit of a trim from the 2:48 running time.

* – At one point, Sam turned to me and asked, “Why is he getting shorter?” as he was becoming a child in his later years. My response was, “Why is he growing younger?” I realize now that it’s not necessarily two sides of the same coin, as he’s born both very old and very small (the size of a baby) at the beginning of the film. If we want to treat that as precedent, it doesn’t seem to make sense that he would revert to being a baby as he ages. I don’t know. I need to think about that one more.