Spoilertastic Benjamin Button Review

So, Anne Thompson posted an early rave of Benjamin Button from an “industry spy.” Her commenters accused it of sounding like a studio plant. Thing is, I don’t think Thompson would post a studio plant review so it would be nice if this person would go on the record. At any rate, they say:

It’s magic realism propelled by extraordinary filmmaking technology but it’s not remotely what I’d call cold. It creates a world of oddities and wonderful, off-kilter characters but the whole piece is anchored by a decades long relationship that gets strained, frayed, breaks and rebuilds into something profound and moving.

The achievement is big and bold and ambitious and life-affirming, but the sentimentality is always toughened by the continual sense of loss and deep sadness at the transitory nature of the human condition. If it sounds like an art movie, it absolutely is, but it’s a four quadrant art film!

Meanwhile, one of her commenters caught a preview screening of the film and wrote quite a long review with a great many plot details revealed. He also attended a Q&A with Pitt et al. and reports on that event as well. It really sounds lovely, this movie, gotta say, even with PopCultureNerd’s lukewarm review. I am going to go out on a limb here and say that if you haven’t lived enough of a life to really get what it feels like to stare down the barrel of old age this film will not hit you on the levels intended. I realize this sounds disgustingly agist and perhaps condescending but give an old lady some credit. You learn things as you get older is all.