Damn, they’re showing this thing already? A friend of ours just got back from a very-recent screening of David Fincher’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and they were decidedly not impressed at all. We were pretty surprised to hear this considering their initial enthusiasm for this project.
While they didn’t think it was terrible, they did say the film wasn’t the tearjerker we all heard it was supposed to be and was much more of an “emotional dud.” They’re reaction to it was lukewarm, but they also noted it was the kind of tepidness that the Academy loves.
When we probed a little further and asked about its deeper Oscar hopes, the mention of Brad Pitt was practically laughed out of the room. Taraji P. Henson’s (an actress routinely being suggested as a Best Supporting possibility) chances fared better as she was apparently one of the better parts of the movie, but even still her turn was apparently “not a very strong performance.”
We ourselves worried about some of the “Forrest Gump”-like elements with the story (the same writer Eric Roth penned ‘Button’) and some of its more fanciful and cliched moments and they confirmed that the film contained some icky traces of that unfortunately highly-respected dud.
Ok, but what about the effects? Are they believable? They’re apparently “Titanic-esque” in the way that James Cameron’s film broke new ground at the time, but rather than support the emotional story, they distract and distance.
Apparently the older crowd was digging it and weepy, but it sounds like a film younger audiences and younger critics might not get behind and support whole hog. They said if it becomes a popular hit ala ‘Gump’ its chances with the Academy will increase, but if not, the possibility that it could fall under the radar are a reality.
Man, we’re officially worried.
