We saw the movie, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button today. It was what I expected, yet more. A bit of a tear jerker, a bit sweet, a little bitter; it’s all good. The movie flows like a story would if someone were telling it to you. In a way, it is. A young woman, whose mother is dying, is given the diary of Benjamin Button to read to her mother. It is a curious bit of prose with dashes of Benjamin’s unique personality preserved within the weathered pages.

Benjamin was born as an 80 year old baby. His father was scared of him and so he wound up in the care of Queenie, a wonderful black woman who is the only person who truly is able to treat Benjamin as normal, even though he’s extraordinary. The scenes as he grows up (and younger) are any scenes you might see between mother and son.

The performances were top notch, but Queenie (Taraji P. Henson) was my favorite. A great actress, a fascinating character. This young woman needs more roles like this. If she gets them, she’ll be a force to be reckoned with in Hollywood.

Brad Pitt ate this role up. He’s always been such a babyface, but he really knows what to do with a good role and this is one of those roles actors kill for. Luckily, no one was planted in the backyard for this one.

A small performance that MUST not be overlooked is performed by Mahershalalhashbaz Ali who is the character of Mr. Weatherly. He does a recitation of Shakespeare that not only entranced the character of Benjamin, but the audience in the theatre as well. There have only been a few times when I’ve been at a movie and heard applause. This was one of those times.

Go see the movie, look for it On Demand, or put it on your Netflix list. This is a keeper.

Tags: movie review, movies

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 31st, 2009 at 11:41 pm and is filed under reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.