New ‘Benjamin Button’ Stills!

http://www.newsweek.com/id/171182
Entire article at link. Highlights below
REVIEW
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
By David Ansen | NEWSWEEK
Published Nov 28, 2008

Directed by David Fincher. Starring Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton. Opens Dec. 25.

Wistful, melancholic, steeped in a sense of impermanence and looming mortality, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” is not a movie one could have predicted from the maker of “Se7en,” “Fight Club” and “Zodiac.” David Fincher’s haunting and uneven picaresque fable is a radical reimagining of a fanciful, minor F. Scott Fitzgerald short story. It tells the tall tale of an infant who is born as an old man—tiny but suffering all the infirmities of an 80-year-old—who lives his life in reverse, becoming younger with each passing year until he achieves real infancy at the end of his life.

Benjamin (Brad Pitt) gets his last name from his button-manufacturing father (Jason Flemyng) who, horrified by the sight of his bizarre baby, abandons him on the steps of a New Orleans old-age home, where he is raised by the loving black employee Queenie (Taraji P. Henson). He may only be a toddler, but he feels right at home among the old folks, being a balding child who wears glasses and is confined to a wheelchair. At this stage of the story it’s only Pitt’s heavily made-up head we’re seeing (digitally imposed on other bodies); it will be a while before he begins to resemble the matinee idol we know.

Pitt’s Benjamin, with a lazy Southern accent, narrates this two-hour-and-40-minute tale. If his ruminations evoke distant echoes of “Forrest Gump” it’s because Eric Roth wrote both screenplays. “Button” is, among other things, a love story, but it’s in no hurry to let you know it.

The poignance of this love story lies in its impossibility. She will grow older as he grows younger; their daughter will grow up as he returns to childhood. Only for one magical moment will these lovers share the same age. Yet for all of Fincher’s formidable filmmaking—this is one gorgeously shot and designed movie—I was never convinced that the spoiled, sometimes abrasive Alice and the gentle, philosophical Benjamin were a good romantic fit. As compelling as Blanchett and Pitt are—he gives one of the subtlest, most touching performances of his career—their characters don’t quite mesh here.

In another movie this would be a fatal flaw, yet the overall impact of “Benjamin Button” is greater than the sum of its parts. The metaphor of a life lived backward is strangely haunting. Benjamin’s saga is singular yet universal: anyone who has contemplated his own mortality will find it hard not to be moved by Fincher’s evocation of the fickleness of fate. Lyrical, original, misshapen and deeply felt, this is one flawed beauty of a movie.

http://www.soundtrack.net/movies/database/?id=30121&page=review
Beware some Spoilers

Movie Review: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
by Dan Goldwasser
on November 28th, 2008

David Fincher’s first PG-13 film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, is based on a short story by noted author F. Scott Fitzgerald. A rather interesting biographically-laid out story told through flashback, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is about the life and times of a Mr. Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt) - who was “born under unusual circumstances”.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a slow-paced film that takes its time to get to the points. The ultimate message of the movie is one about living life to the fullest, and taking risks if the path that you’re currently on doesn’t lead to where you want to go. I found the sub-plot about Benjamin’s father’s ultimate redemption and the father-son relationship between him and Benjamin to be most satisfying, with some excellent and touching moments. The movie covers a number of eras, from the 1930s, to World War II, to Post-War America, to the free-loving 1960s, and even a bit of the 1980s. All of these periods are realistically portrayed, through the wonderful production and sound design.

Visual effects and make-up impressively accentuate the performances by Pitt and Blanchett, who play almost all of the various age ranges necessary (except the pre-pubescent roles), and there is certainly a Forrest Gump sensibility to the way the narration furthers the story, covering the bulk of Benjamin’s life and legacy through the reading of his diary (supplemented with side information by Daisy). Shot by Claudio Miranda, the film has a golden hue to it, with natural light keeping things dim yet visible during the night sequences. The music by Alexandre Desplat is delicate and emotional, staying in the background yet providing effective heart-tugs when appropriate. It is likely to be a major contender come Oscar-time.

At 167-minutes the film runs a little on the long side, but The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is certainly worth your time, and a highly enjoyable journey through a man’s life.

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/cinema/Changeling-401541-.4743377.jp

Changeling (15) ****

Angelina Jolie makes a strong bid for an Oscar nomination with her tour de force portrayal of a crusading mother in Clint Eastwood’s harrowing drama.

Jolie is sensational as a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown, who screams and shouts for justice, fearful she might not get the answers she craves.
We share her sense of outrage, shedding tears as the asylum’s insidious head doctor (Denis O’Hare) threatens to destroy Christine’s resolve with electro-shock therapy.
Donovan is equally compelling as a chauvinistic bully determined to restore his department’s reputation, complemented by a restrained turn from Malkovich as the man of God who correctly warns Christine: ‘They will do anything within their power to discredit you.’

Hmmm the man hating troll is back. Brad, Brad, Brad. The lone troll crying in the blog. Benjamin Button and Brad Pitt are getting rave reviews. Suck it up Troll. Live in the past all you want. You sound like the bitter Whiny X. Snow is in the forecast or flurries for the deep South. Too cute. It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

guli @ 11/28/2008 at 7:36 pm
You are welcome. It is always good to shut the troll up.The troll sure do love to whine on BP and AJ threads. What a shame since there are so many TOMKAT threads to whine on. Hmm some are predicting Razzies for Little Sci Fi Man. Stay tuned.

# 487 mariam
ANGELINA JOLIE *CHATS TO EDITH” FULL* (AUDIO

Mariam, thank you for posting that audio. Angie has had some really good and intelligent interviews with the London media. Their questions are so much more intelligent and in depth than most of the American interviewers. JMHO. Peace

I’m not a man hater, I’m a truth poster. haha I love men! Brad is not a man… he’s a plastic ken doll. he’s more of a lesbian that anything else.

From Lainey. TMZ has the video of Peeboy who’ring to the paps. Wonder how Maniston’s PR is going to spin this.

http://www.laineygossip.com/John_Mayer_unleashed_in_New_York_cant_help_but_entertain_with_the_paparazzi.aspx?CatID=0&CelID=0

Douchebag entertains
Now that his gag order has been temporarily lifted, in New York this week without Jennifer Aniston, John Mayer is back to doing what he does best: feeding his attention addiction, talking out of his ass. I’ll say this: he is entertaining.

Douche was surrounded by paps and fans yesterday, signing photos, taking photos, even some cute bantering with a little old lady who didn’t have a clue about him but pleaded for an autograph anyway.

Then of course it was the John Mayer special: camera time!

Check him out as he’s entering his hotel, unable to pull himself away from the spotlight, circling the paps, making to leave but irresistibly drawn by the lure, by the need to make himself heard.

It’s fascinating, non?

He canNOT walk away.

Click here for the video.

# 512 ELLLLES @ 11/28/2008 at 8:08 pm http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2008-11-27-pitt-and-fincher_N.htm

Nice brad and fincher article at USA today.
====================

Thanks for the link.

bdj, I think I said this earlier today, but it bears repeating thank you for all of your wonderful articles. I want them both to get nominated for awards. If they both win, that would be beyond wonderful, great, fantastic. But if Brad could get one I know Angie would be happy and so would I. Peace

poor john mayer. It seems like he has really lost whatever mojo he had. He wasn’t this bad when he was with Jessica Simpson.

I actually liked one or two of his songs but now I can’t take him serious even when he jams on the guitar with Eric Clapton.

He lost it! Kinda like Angelina lost whatever cool ass spark she had before Pitt ruined her.

what?what? pitt ruined her?……..pitt made her hornier.

OT for PT:
# 491 passing Through @ 11/28/2008 at 6:16 pm # 461 ebmo @ 11/28/2008 at 9:28 am

OT for PT:

I LOVE HOUSE! I have watched it fathfully (can’t say I thought every epi was wonderful) but I love it.

I liked Hugh Laurie for years way back int he Black Adder days.
My favorite epi of all time though has to be “birthmarks” or when Wilsn takes House to his dad’s funeral.

++++++++++++++++

Which episode is “Birthmarks”? I don’t know that I have a favorite episode, but the one where House got shot and everything that happens in the show ends up being a hallucination. At the end when you see House got shot he’s being wheeled into the operating room and he tells Chase & Cameron, “Tell Cuddy to give me Ketamine.” He gets the Ketamine-induced coma…then the next show you see that the Ketamine acted as a pain blocker in the brain and House doesn’t need his is pain-free and doesn’t need his cane anymore. That was pretty cool because then you got to watch his descent back into his Vicodin habit as the Ketamine slowly wore off and the pain returned.

The other episode I liked is the one where the girl has CEPA - she can’t feel pain. House spent the entire show trying to get a nerve biopsy on the girl because there was literature saying that it was possible to help chronic pain suffers by grafting a nerve from a CEPA patient to affected body part of the pain sufferer, the nerve would then report no pain to the brain, therefore rendering the person pain-free.

Oh yeah - I also like the show where Foreman has a patient that’s from the ghetto and the two spend the show bickering. They can’t figure otu what’s wrong with her and she dies. But the most telling part of the show was that Foreman’s mother has Alzheimer’s and he’s spent the last few years avoiding his family…and a few shows later Foreman starts talking about how he doesn’t want to turn into a misanthrope like House.

I agree that not every episode is a homerun. They’ve had a couple that have come off a little awkward and a few that have just been plain old duds. That’s the nature of an hour-long show though. It’s hard to maintain that level of consistency every week.
+++++++++++++++
Birthmarks is the recent one where Wilson took House to his Dad’s funeral.

I like all the epis you mentioned.
I think my fav from season one is 3 stories,
I also like the one from season 3 (?) with the Autistic kid in it too. The one with the rape victim.
I like the one’s where house connects wth people no one thinks he can connect with, (even if unwillingly) . some of the clinic seens are priceless, Did you ever see the one with “Syphillis lady”? (season 1) she was in the clinic so it was a side stories but it was hysterical!