My back pages

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Crit

Well, that was a perfectly OK Xmas flick: smart, beautifully shot, a little sentimental but not grotesquely so, but the notion that David Fincher and Eric Roth have served up some sort of profound meditation on age and aging is, well, backward.

I was expecting more from the special effects--young-but-old-looking Benjamin was an impressive incorporation of Brad Pitt's features, old-but-young-looking Benjamin not so much. But holy cow: I was certain that wasn't Cate under the crone makeup in the frame story, but unless IMDb isn't listing nonagenarian Daisy, it must have been Cate. Notwithstanding, the frame, with a wooden Julia Ormond as Daisy's daughter, is awful, goofily, pointlessly bringing Hurricane Katrina into the story. And the other aging effects on Blanchett are less convincing. Oh, and hey: here comes another Fanning down the pike: Elle as 7yo Daisy.

As to the two-ships-passing-at-middle-age story, well, it's done better than in The Confessions of Max Tivoli; I had a pleasant Xmas afternoon in a packed movie theater. But let's not get too excited: it's just a slick entertainment.

Oh, and on the implausibility scale, having a central character who ages backward pales in comparison with having him describe a character played by Tilda Swinton not only as "not beautiful" but as "plain as paper." Oh, please.

Trailers

• Last Chance Harvey--Opened elsewhere to ho-hum reviews today; iffy even if it comes downtown.
• The Ugly Truth--Looks ugly indeed; Heigl needs a new shtick, maybe a new agent.