The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2009)

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is the latest film by David Fincher (Zodiac) and it is the story of a man’s life that spans from the end of World War One to the eighties. Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt) is born as an old man who ages in reverse. He meets a girl (played by Cate Blanchett) who he falls in love with and they go their separate ways meeting up at various points in history. Along the way he experiences World War Two and the sixties and other misadventures that are intended to be touching and whimsical. The story is told through flashbacks by Cate Blanchett, who is dying in a hospital, and her daughter as they read Benjamin’s diary and look at old photos just as hurricane Katrina hits (which feels more than a bit tacked on). This scene is frequently returned to and mostly serves only to interrupt the flow of the already cumbersome story.

If the format of this film seems oddly familiar, that’s because it is. It almost exactly follows the structure of Forrest Gump, except it is a dying old woman telling the story, not Tom Hanks on a bench. Benjamin Button even experiences similar problems and scenarios to Forrest Gump such as the fear of passing on his problem to his child and sailing with a drunken, but lovable captain (Captain Mike played by Jared Harris instead of a Lieutenant Dan). Aside from the fact that the hero is a simple man from the south (who is a little different) and experiences famous events from history while trying to catch up with the love of his life who takes a different path, there are some things to be said for this movie as a separate entity from Forrest Gump. It is certainly an achievement in computer animation, as Benjamin Button as an old man-boy is quite amazing. There are some scenes in which the CG wrinkles are so realistic that it is easy to forget that he is not really that old. As far as gimmicks go, it was, at the very least, well animated. Unfortunately that is all it is: a gimmick. Without that aspect of story there is really nothing remarkable about the film. Brad Pitt is adequate as the title role, but all that can really be said for him is that he doesn’t lose his accent (which I became tired of by the end of the film). The romance with Cate Blanchett leaves something to be desired as they both seem to be lacking in any on-screen chemistry.

The sets and environments are well built and animated. It is hard to tell at times what is CG, which is a good thing, but without characters to care about everything seems as lifeless as the title character himself. The biggest problem with this movie is that Benjamin Button is just not an interesting character. Interesting to look at? Yes, but there is nothing behind the CG. Without the gimmick of the reverse aging, there is absolutely nothing to this character. The gimmick also takes away from the overall story. In Forrest Gump (and it is impossible to not compare the two movies), the focus was the times that were experienced through the eyes of someone who was detached from them. In The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, the times are pushed into the background in order to sell the romance and the gimmick, both of which fall short of making this movie worth the roughly 160 minutes. While there is no doubt that this movie flexes its big budget, in the end it is just not that interesting. Save your curiosity for something else.

Coraline (2009)

Coraline is the latest stop-motion film from director Henry Selick whose previous films include such classics as James and the Giant Peach and more famously, The Nightmare Before Christmas. Coraline is based on the novella of the same name by Neil Gaiman and is the story of a young girl who is ignored by her busy parents regularly and moves with them to a new house far from her old friends and school. There she meets a colorful ensemble of characters including a black cat (voiced by the instantly recognizable Keith David), two crazy old women with a large collection of stuffed Scottish Terriers, and a young boy named Wybie, short for Wybourne (one can probably guess what that name means). In the new house, she discovers a door which leads to a rabbit-hole like tunnel and an alternate world in which her parents are devoted to her and everything revolves around her. The only catch is that she has to stay there forever and have her eyes cut out and replaced with buttons. It is something of a darker version of the Alice in Wonderland setup.

The story in the real world feels predominately like little more than the set-up for the alternate world, which is fitting because that is exactly what it is. In the real world the audience is introduced to the characters and locations that will later become much more interesting in the alternate world. While Coraline (Dakota Fanning) learns her lesson in the end, she could have been developed a bit more in order to establish a true change in character. At the end, she doesn’t seem that much different than she did in the beginning. In fact, most of the characters are a bit lacking in any real emotional depth, but they serve their purposes well enough to move the story along. The real attraction in this film is its sheer technical brilliance. There is no stop-motion film that even compares with some of the visuals in this movie. The living garden and mouse circus are particularly notable scenes that boggle the mind as to how it could possibly have been made without the use of CG. The scenes in the alternate world in Coraline are easily the most engrossing as every part of the screen demands attention and there is enough detail to keep the viewers eyes occupied. The wide array of color is vivid and the settings are original and mesmerizing. Every character and every location appears to have been painstakingly crafted and the end result is nothing less than a feast for the eyes.

This is an entertaining film and one that the entire family could enjoy. However, it is a very dark film and the evil witch (Teri Hatcher) in her true form could probably terrify some children (if the people with buttons for eyes wasn't enough), but the horror in a fairy tale always adds to the experience and is a crucial part of the hero learning a lesson. What child doesn’t remember the boy’s painful transformation in to a donkey from Pinnochio, or the witch queen from Snow White?

Lady Vengeance (2005)

Lady Vengeance is the final installment in Park Chan-Wook’s revenge trilogy and is arguably the best of the three. This film, like Oldboy (the second installment in the trilogy) devotes a substantial amount of time on just one character, Lee Geum-ja, played by Lee Yeong-ae. The film follows her in her quest for revenge against a man, played by Choi Min-sik, who murders children (while filming it) and forced her to take the blame or else he would kill her daughter. She agrees and suffers the consequences. The story covers her time in prison in which she had to learn to be clever, devious, and ruthless in order to survive as well as her interactions with other characters, predominately with her daughter of whom she tries to bond with but struggles with the balance of fully opening up to her and pursuing her revenge.

The story is told mainly through flashbacks and fantasies making the film a visually stunning and surreal experience. The colors are particularly noticeable through the use of red and white. The theme of revenge in this film is portrayed a little differently than it is in both Oldboy and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. It is almost used as a form of release and freedom for many different characters as if to say that only through vengeance can they truly move on with their lives. Yet Lee Geum-ja’s reaction to fulfilling her desire is a bit different: it leaves her unfulfilled and guilty over the death of the boy of whom she was forced to take the credit for killing. There is a duality to vengeance in the story that presents it as both an inescapable prison and a key to freedom. There are a multitude of characters and all of them have different back stories (however brief) and it makes the story that much more complex and interesting. This film features an amazing cast and, as if to signify the end of the trilogy, many of the stars from the first two films make appearances (Shin Ha-kyun and Song Kang-ho from Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance play a pair of hit men and seeing them working together in this story only makes the memory of their previous roles more resonating) and in the case of Choi Min-sik (Oh Dae-su from Oldboy), even a lead role.

The acting in this film is excellent and Lee Yeong-ae is especially memorable in the lead role portraying an incredibly complicated character that is shown as being enticing and seductive to sympathetic as well as extremely dangerous. The score is also worth mentioning as it is (like the one used in Oldboy) catchy and haunting, fitting in perfectly with the bizarre world of this film. The tone throughout the film is consistent, fitting, and never overbearing. There is not one scene in this film that feels unnecessary or uneven. At the end, it will leave the audience dwelling on the images displayed over the course of the film. Lady Vengeance, Oldboy, and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance solidify Park Chan-wook’s status as a master of the suspense-thriller genre.

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002)

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance the first in South Korean director Park Chan-Wook’s “revenge trilogy,” consisting of films that are only connected in their central theme, that being the theme of revenge. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance is a highly stylized thriller that is both well acted and directed. There is no denying that, even if the film is disliked by its audience which seems to be the general case with this film, it was directed by a talented director who seems to deeply care for the story he’s trying to tell. The story itself features a series of desperate and good intentions that end up going horribly awry causing a chain reaction of violent and grizzly scenarios while also providing an interesting commentary on the relationship between those with wealth and power and those without. The central protagonist Ryu, played effectively by Shin Ha-kyun, is deaf and mute with a sister who is in desperate need of a kidney transplant. Unable to get the money needed and his own kidney being unable to work in his sister, he ends up going to extreme lengths such as black market organ dealing and even kidnapping.

As stylized as this film is, the revenge of every character who seeks it is not glorified. The scenes depicting violence, and they are very violent, are without any music. These scenes are usually quiet, making all the sounds of physical contact and breathing that much more noticeable and are shot with long takes, making them feel realistic and disturbing; the final scene is particularly haunting and memorable. There is an odd contradiction in this film and that has to do with the message and the director's visuals. The ugliness of revenge is often depicted in the story through the effects it has on the characters, but there are several shots that are just beautiful to look at, regardless of subject matter. There is a scene in which Song Kang-ho is dragging the bleeding Ryu through the water. The blood flowing in the river forms an oddly striking image that looks like an abstract painting. The plot's pacing gets a bit strained by the end of the film as the focus of the movie ends up shifting to the perspective of another lesser seen character played by Song Kang-ho (Memories of Murder). This, while giving the audience another perspective and new story, takes away from Ryu’s story which requires significant attention in order to establish more of a connection with the character. His is a character that relies almost entirely on physical communication (there are a few inter-titles as he and his girlfriend both know sign language) and in order to achieve more depth, more screen time seemed required. The other character is also fascinating to watch, and Song Kang-ho performs brilliantly, but also suffers from a lack of screen time in order to progress and show more depth. In the end, the final product is a well directed, violent thriller, but the story definitely takes dominance over the characters and this leaves you with characters that as an audience member are hard to sympathize with and difficult to care too deeply about. This can make the overall experience a bit off-putting and feel like a well-directed spectacle of violence with little substance.