David Fincher's 'Benjamin Button' Underwhelms At Telluride?

Ah, the quick to judge are already in full force. The talk of the Telluride Film Festival right now is that the 20-minutes of footage shown from David Fincher’s highly-anticipated “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” is decidedly underwhelming. Or at least that’s how some are feeling. Keep in mind it wasn’t a straight twenty minutes from the film, but rather various scenes and footage stitched together. At best reactions seem mixed.

SlashFilm and FirstShowing, two early blog supporters of the film, were slightly disappointed and unimpressed respectively (FS’ Alex Billington declared it a “masterpiece” after only seeing the trailer a few months ago). Both sites seemed to find the out-of-context footage confusing. Slash wrote:

“The footage I screened tonight was met with disappointment and concern. There are moments of magic and wonder, but interrupted and surrounded by moments which had me questioning, “Is this really the best footage he has?”

“The result was quite unimpressive, but I’m left wondering whether it was the editor to blame for this 20 minute cut or whether the film really has problems,” wrote FirstShowing.

Hollywood Elsewhere wasn’t there, but two friends called him immediately after to echo the same disappointed sentiments. While visually stunning as you might expect, the footage didn’t apparently feel, “particularly exciting or engrossing.”

Not every one’s seeing it this way. Variety’s Anne Thompson didn’t have one negative word to say about the clips that were screened and conversely saw the ‘Button’ footage in a much more positive light, calling the scenes, “artfully edited fragments,” and lauded its sumptuous looks.

“The movie is gorgeously mounted in minute period detail, complete with swooping crane shots and intricate camera moves; Button has a burnished sepia polish.”

The Variety scribes notes that five minutes have been trimmed from its alleged three-hour length, that the film sits now at just over two and a half hours and the picture is about to be locked soon (which will mean no more tinkering, unless this bad Telluride buzz pushes that schedule back). Apparently its $150 million cost has been an issue and somewhat of a sticking point with Paramount.

Karina at Spoutblog was more glowing then anyone, calling the footage “impressive,” and “absolutely gorgeous.” She actually makes it sounds pretty enticing.

“Though the reel gives every hint that ‘Button’ is a proper epic tearjerker about love and pain and time… it’s also infused with the dry, quippy sense of humor that cuts through the darkest swatches of Fincher’s filmography.”

She also delivers an incredibly detailed description of each scene shown. It’s quite impressive actually. In a response piece to all the heat, she seems to think the fanboys may just want another “Fight Club,” and the departed tone of ‘Button,’ might not be something they’re looking for and the thought did cross our minds too. A lot of people like David Fincher, this film seems to be miles away from darker, trangressive tone that seems to appeal to younger, male audiences.

Ultimately, we urge everyone not to flip out too much about any of it considering it’s only 20 various minutes of non-contextual footage from a two-and-half hour-film. Take it all with a grain of salt and don’t sound the alarms yet is all we have to say.