The Curious Case of Benjamin Button's Mixed Reviews

I'm getting a little unnerved at this point. In another early screening, the reviews, again, aren't sparkling. This pisses me the hell off.

Okay, so there was this 20-minute reel shown at a David Fincher tribute at the Telluride Film Festival.

This is coming from Jeffrey Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere:

"My friends had one unqualified positive reaction, which was to the performance by Taraji P. Henson (Hustle and Flow) as Brad Pitt's adoptive mother. But beyond that, the Button footage felt vaguely underwhelming, they said. "

Then...

It just wasn't particularly exciting or engrossing, one explained. Excellent visual effects (old Pitt as a baby, etc.) and fine cinematography but with a kind of enervated, waiting-for-something-to-happen quality. The footage showed portions of the entire film, the other friend said, but in a way that kept you from getting into it with cuts coming too abruptly. And so people were kind of...whatever, grunting and muttering on the way out.

Really sounds like it's flopping so far.

Now if you remember, there was another screening not even a month ago where the reviews were pretty good. But I'm getting worried. Is this a Best Picture candidate? I mean, it's a funny situation, because it seems like the screenplay, by Eric Roth, (which I have the 2005 version, but haven't gotten around to it) is a sure-fire nomination and then I feel Pitt could get a nomination. It has all these pieces, but so far the film is getting mixed "feeling" (not really reviews). How is it not brilliant, despite a brilliant screenplay and a brilliant performance?

It is just a twenty-minute reel, but I can't help but feel pertrubed. It remains in my Best Picture line-up and in my day-dreams, but..hmmm. That's my response to all this.



Then, oh there's more, Peter Sciretta of /Film had this little video review. He said, and I paraphrase, "It's a magical wonder..but I left disappointed." He went on to say that he loved Brad Pitt (that seems to be the general opinion of everyone) and that he agrees with Paramount that the film needs to be cut down in length. He described this "ballet dancing scene" that goes on for five minutes. He stated, "It was four minutes to long".

Five minutes of ballet dancing? Yuck.

So it's exhausting, too long, magical, well-acted, a cause for concern and inappropriately funny. Watch this video to get the idea.