(no subject)

[rm]

While it may be too sentimental or conscious in its machinations for many of you, I cried for two hours straight during The Tale of Benjamin Button. Two hours. It was exhausting.

Comments

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

I've sort of been keeping this one off my radar because I'm afraid that a film will tone down some of the harshness of the original piece.

If it's sent you into prolonged sorrow, though, I may have to revise my view.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I'm still thinking about it. They've tried to market it as a feel good film, or at least one that will inspire you to stop slacking and go live your life, but no, it's fucking gutting and is very smart about loss and war and creative endeavors and the way all those things fuck life up. Also there are choices characters make that a lesser film would have tried to paint as heroic, and this film is smart enough to know are just complicated.

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

They've tried to market it as a feel good film, or at least one that will inspire you to stop slacking and go live your life...

Ugh, yes. I noticed that.

Well, then. I may have to make time to go see it.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Anyone who plays in the Whoniverse has to see it. It's like Romeo + Juliet for teenaged Timelords.

[timiathan.livejournal.com]

Huh, I don't think I saw the same movie as you. Not to invalidate your reaction, but just for the sake of balance...to me, it felt like Forrest Gump, without the heart or interesting characters. It even has a Lt. Dan. The acting and production are good, but each departure from the darkness of the original story struck me as absurd, and I never got attached to any of the characters.

[rm.livejournal.com]

See, I hate Forest Gump. I think it's hokey, unrealistic bullshit. Tilda Swinton's character in particular gutted me. For me it went in and out of this sense of being a fairytale and I liked that sense of the magical realism that made you start questioning what might or might not be true. Also, I'm a dancer.

[timiathan.livejournal.com]

Forest Gump has plenty of problems, and to me those are the aspects that this movie borrowed. That montage of all the characters at the end -- life is like a box of chocolates! I feel like Benjamin Button is a great movie, ruined by the producers trying to make it appeal to a wide audience. Benjamin is the pretentious asshole he's supposed to be half the time, and then they brighten him up into a tragic hero and slap on an artificial uplifting tone whenever possible. The result is a movie that's very uneven and unsure of itself.

[timiathan.livejournal.com]

Although I should say Tilda Swinton was a highlight. To me, that's the kind of movie this should have been - that whole section was true to its own darkness.