Monday, February 16, 2009

Benjamin Button

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is an unusual film in that it is 165 mins 30 seconds too long. Reducing it to 30 seconds and then replacing what remained with, say, one of those B & Q ads would give it a degree of authenticity and emotional punch entirely absent from the version currently in cinemas. I suffered until the bitter end, largely because, like everybody else in the audience, I was curious to see how Brad Pitt would play an embryo. Sadly, this pleasure was denied us.
*Coincidentally, an email arrives this morning from Tom Laming telling me that the original story - only 29 pages - is very good.

6 comments:

  1. "It makes Forrest Gump look like Stoppard" heard on the world service early one morning.

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  2. Brad Pitt would make a passable Stan from Dinner Ladies . Replace "me dad was a desert rat" with "ma dad was at Iwo Jima"
    As a general rule, the more intense the hype, the more the critics praise, the greater the turn off.

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  3. Yeah, it was too long...That was my thought too. Not, however, 165 minutes too long! Plus, we ladies got to admire Brad Pitt's hot looks; you guys just got an aging Cate Blanchett. I'm not surprised you got bored sooner.

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  4. Brad Pitt doesn't have the emotional range to play a convincing embryo

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  5. Cut out everything but the Russia segment with Tilda Swinton and you would have a very nice short.

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  6. I'm told that the plot works better if you watch the film on rewind . . . and it's shorter, too.

    Jeffery Hodges

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