Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Movie: Help Me, I Need an Editor!

Actually, that is not the name of the movie, which is "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" with Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinton. The movie is pure Hollywood, pretending to be deep and deliver big picture messages about life but really just serves convince the viewer once more that it is a lot of fun to be a young, beautiful movie star. Though it is based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, it is a very long movie at nearly three hours. In that, it is rather self-indulgent and could, as suggested by the title of my post, have become a better, tighter movie with some thoughtful editing. Blanchett and Swinton both do excellent jobs; Brad Pitt does better than you might have expected but he is not quite at their level.

Recommended if you are in the mood for a big dose of Hollywood fluff.

Addendum: MR points to this review. I like the phrase "maximum Hallmark impact".