My Curious Creative Man-Crush on David Fincher...

David Fincher has earned himself a considerable amount of praise (along with a rather rabid following amongst aspiring filmmakers) for his psychological thrillers. With films like Se7en, Fight Club and Zodiac under his belt, it’s safe to say that he knows what the hell he’s doing when he’s trying to mess with someone’s head (hopefully someone will get that Se7en allusion). When most directors find their niche, they tend to stick with it. Zack Snyder had some success with 300, now he’s helming Watchmen, and it’s safe to say that he won’t be making the next Hugh Grant-starring, bumbling British romantic comedy anytime soon. Apparently, for David Fincher, the old saying “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” doesn’t apply.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is not a psychological thriller. It’s not even a run-of-the-mill thriller. The only real mystery of the film is what exactly is making this man age backwards, and that thread doesn’t even drive the narrative! Benjamin Button is, at its core, a love story, and a deeply powerful one at that. Fueled by an enormous performance from Brad Pitt, this movie not only represents a successful venture for David Fincher, but a huge step forward in terms of proving his versatility as an artist.
As a concept, a story of a man who ages backwards is naturally quite interesting, but there’s a major roadblock to overcome in order to ensure that a film like this avoids the “hokey” characterization. The methods for creating a believable rendering of an aged Brad Pitt’s head perched on a young boy’s body must look authentic. Most CG is blatantly obvious, and it’s my contention that obvious CG can ruin a film. Think of the digital gophers that pop up in the latest Indiana Jones flick. If you felt completely abused by those furry nuisances, like I did, then you know what I mean. That being said, the work done by the filmmakers to get the heavily made up Brad Pitt’s face onto the body of a 7 year-old is both remarkable and entirely realistic. This is one of the only times I’ve ever been able to say that the computer generated images in a film are almost indistinguishable from the tangible.
The film itself is truly a masterpiece. David Fincher certainly put all he had into this one, and it shows. Eric Roth’s screenplay is both satisfying and powerful, and Fincher pulls all the right emotional chords at exactly the right moment. The visuals are stunning, and the director’s got a real talent for camera motion and scene composition. He defines the term “fill the frame” without ever crowding it, and it’s hard not to be astonished by what you’re watching. Actually, you’ll be watching for over two and a half hours, but the story is so engaging that you’re rarely aware of it.
Benjamin Button has already generated quite a buzz for itself, and I’m here to tell you that it’s all certainly warranted. There’s hardly anything to critique, and it ranks right up there with Slumdog Millionaire as one of the best movies of not just this year but easily the last several. If for every Scary Movie sequel we were presented with a Slumdog or Button, maybe films like Transformers wouldn’t win Best Movie at the MTV movie awards.

Grade: A