The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

In 1922 F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote an unusual short story about Benjamin Button, who was born and old man and grew backwards, becoming younger every year. This unusual foray into science fantasy is whimsical and often humorous, but it has a melancholy aspect to it because Benjamen feels out of sync with the rest of the world. In this adaptation to the silver screen, the filmakers seized on that melancholy, and emphasized a line of romance that was almost nonexistent in the story.

Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt) is born a full-grown man in the original story, which Fitzgerald never bothered to explain, but he is a miniature old man in the movie. His mother dies shortly after childbirth and his father abandons him outside an old folks home, leaving him to be raised by a young black woman who could not have children herself. The choice to set Benjamin's growing-up years in an old folks home works well for the movie, and we get to watch Benjamin learn about life from people about to depart it. While at the home he meets a little girl who will become the love of his life (Cate Blanchett). Their friendship and later romance are touching at times, but also turbulent as they struggle with the fact that he grows younger as she grows older.

The filmakers essentially gave the short story the Forrest Gump treatment, following Benjamin's life through two World Wars, multiple continents, and changing eras of American history. None of this is in the short story, of course, but it works well in the film. The make-up used on Brad Pit as an old man is quite good, and there are some very fine performances by Pitt, Blanchett, and Tilda Swinton.

My biggest complaint about the movie is that the story is largely told through the memories of his aged sweetheart as she dies of cancer in a New Orleans hospital during Hurricane Katrina. This attempt at connecting the story to a recent and sensational event is unnecessary and distracting.There is also an attempt to explain why Benjamin grows backwards (something about a magic clock) but that's distracting too. F. Scott Fitzgerald never bothered to try to explain why Benjamin Button was the way he was; Fitzgerald was satisfied with taking his audience along with Benjamin's backward life.

The film's best moments are ones that capture that fantastical melancholy of the story. The most bittersweet of these is when Benjamin dies as an infant in the arms of the old woman who once was his lover. I sat thinking about the movie for a long time after the credits started to roll.

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Seirei no Moribito (Guardian of the Sacred Spirit)

We started watching Seirei no Moribito on the recommendation from my cousin. I'm not a big anime person, but this series is simply a good story. Seirei no Moribito is an epic fantasy that takes place in a far-away land. The main character, Balsa, is a female body-guard who is entrusted to protect a prince. The animation is excellent, but it never takes precedent over the storytelling. Even the impressive action sequences are important to the plot and not just for show. The series is full of vivid, interesting characters that develop through the story line. Chief among these, however, is Balsa, the coolest female character I have seen in a long time.

This animated series is based on a the first book in the Moribito series, by Nahoko Uehashi. The anime version expands on the story somewhat, and I actually liked it a little better than the book, but they were both good. And since the book is just the first of ten novels, I need to read the other ones to properly judge them. I would recommend Seirei no Moribito to anyone, even if (like me) you don't speak Japanese and you don't really watch anime. The DVD's are really expensive, but it's also available online if you know where to look.
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Wives and Daughters

The BBC works its magic again with another excellent miniseries, this time brining Elizabeth Gaskell's novel Wives and Daughters to the screen. I admit I had never read any of Gaskell's work before seeing the movie, and her only books I knew of were Cranford and North and South. Having happily corrected my ignorance, I will soon be adding some Gaskell novels to my summer reading list.

The main character, Molly Gibson, lives with her widowed father. He remarries a woman with a daughter close to Molly's age, introducing a new mother and a new daughter to the family. It's interesting to see a film explore how two families settle together as one family, with plenty of conflicts and struggles along the way. Mrs. Gibson is at once sly and naive, but always in pursuit of her own selfish interests. Her daughter from her first marriage, Cynthia, has some of the same selfishness, but Molly becomes a good influence on her and she often works against her mother's will. Along the way the Gibsons become involved in the drama of their wealthy neighbors, the Hamleys, who have two handsome sons. It is inevitable in such a story that romance would blossom, but it doesn't happen quite like you would expect it, and that's what makes it so much fun.

If you like period pieces or human-driven stories, I highly recommend Wives and Daughters. It has some very funny dialogue, quite a few excellent performances, and very well-developed characters. Even if you can't stand the better-known Jane Austen film adaptations, Wives and Daughters is worth a try because it doesn't delve into the sappy as much, and it has some great mysteries and plot twists.
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Made of Honor

The basic plot of this movie is pretty clear from the trailers: Tom (Patrick Dempsey) never commits in any relationship because his best friend, Hannah, is always there for him. She goes to Scotland for several weeks and he realizes he's been in love with her all along. But Hannah comes back with a handsome fiance and a wedding date in two weeks. Since they are such good friends, she asks him to be her "maid of honor" and he goes along with it so he can try to win her back, with plenty of jokes and awkward situations to go around.

I didn't expect Oscar material when we rented this flick, but Made of Honor is even more formulaic and painful than I anticipated. Halfway through the movie I was utterly disgusted, so by the time Tom comes flying through the chapel doors on horseback at the end of the movie I was beyond caring. Romantic comedies aren't my favorite genre, but this one gives all the rest a bad name.

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Mamma Mia!

Mamma Mia! is the film adaptation of the popular West End jukebox musical based on the music of the Swedish group ABBA. Like other productions of its genre, the play and the movie have a loose plot cobbled together in a way to include as many songs as possible from the source artist. This sort of thing works better on stage than on screen, so the movie Mamma Mia! was a little strange. But it was undeniably fun. The cast looked like they had a marvelous time, even if virtually nothing made sense. It was strange to see serious actors like Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, and Colin Firth sing and dance, but I think that was part of the attraction. It's funny to watch James Bond, Mr. Darcy, and a multiple-Oscar winner prance about like silly children. I give major credit to Meryl Streep, who has no dance groove but didn't hold back and made it look fun anyway. Worse was Pierce Brosnan, who really and truly can't sing to save his life. He belted it out anyway, though, in a raspy sort of way, so he gets points for effort at least. Fortunately, many of the other cast members sang pretty well, like Colin Firth and Amanda Seyfried.

I think the movie itself was pretty forgettable, but it was still incredibly fun because of the music. This is really a compliment to ABBA, for having created such a trove of memorable songs. I am by no means a hardcore ABBA fan, but I recognized every song in the movie and (surprisingly) knew the lyrics to more than half of them. This exhuberant, sing-along aspect helped distract from the thin plot and ridiculous scenes. Mamma Mia! is empty and saccharine-sweet, but still probably worth a rental.
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Prince Caspian

Never let it be said that Disney didn't know how to capitalize ona trend. In the wake of highly successful fantasy films such as The Lord of the Rings, Disney weighed in with another classic fantasy series, The Chornicles of Narnia. The second installment of this series, Prince Caspian, is probably one of the best-suited books of the series for movie adaptation. Which is why I was puzzled when the screenwriters took some fairly significant liberties with the plot, mostly in order to include more epic battle sequences and special effects. The Narnia books have their share of fighting, but here it somewhat subordinates the plot. The first Narnia movie, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, was pretty decent. Prince Caspian is a weaker movie in general, but it is still okay. The title character is certainly good-looking enough to have plenty of young fans anxiously wait for his appearance in the next movie in the series.

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Iron Man

I missed this one in the theater, so we put it in our Blockbuster-by-Mail queue. Perhaps waiting to see it was a mistake, however, because I was a little disappointed. It was a fun summer movie, but it wasn't amazing. The special effects were fine, but those things just don't impress me like they used to. And I saw all the good parts on the commercials anyway. In fact, all but two or three of the good lines of dialogue were in the trailers. I will gladly admit one thing, however -- casting Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark was the best casting decision since Johnny Depp was picked for Pirates of the Caribbean. He was absolutely perfect for the part. I thought Gwenyth Paltrow was an odd choice for Pepper Potts, but not too bad. Jeff Bridges was a fine villain, although I scarcely recognized him with the beard and the shaved head. Perhaps I would have enjoyed the movie a little more if I could have ignored Newton's Three Laws and the basic principles of thermodynamics, but I thought a lot of the action was fairly unbelievable. Still, it was a fun flick, and I would gladly see the inevitable sequel.
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