“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” – David Fincher’s larger-than-life meditation on the perils of aging is a technological gem that doesn’t cling to the traditional Hollywood notion of a happy ending. Its characters drift through life in search of some deeper spiritual connection yet rarely experience the kind of blissful payoff that makes life worth living. Instead, their happiness comes in tantalizing flashes just waiting to seize the moment when alienation borders on hopelessness.
Recently, you may have heard about the possibility of this film taking home none of the thirteen awards for which it has been nominated, but I think that’s ridiculous. The performances, direction, cinematography, special effects, and score are all worthy of recognition and shouldn’t be denied come Oscar night. People have criticized Fincher’s emotional detachment from the material, but to me, that reluctance to get too intimate is the entire point of the story.
Benjamin Button is a man stricken with the unusual condition of aging in reverse, so he’s all too aware that any relationships he forges will only end in desolation for all parties. The strength of the film depends on how each audience member responds to what they’ve just seen which, as we know, is rarely a universal sentiment. Personally, the sheer elegance and scope of the narrative spoke to me on many levels and feel that a victory would be well-deserved.
“Milk” – Sean Penn’s take on San Francisco politician Harvey Milk is likely to go down as one of the great screen performances of the decade, but the rest of Gus Van Sant’s piece is a fairly standard biopic. The trials and tribulations of Harvey Milk are captured brilliantly throughout a series of rallies and closed door meetings yet the narrative never really came alive enough for me. Just because the story is inspirational doesn’t necessarily mean that it will transfer perfectly to the screen and I think that’s what happened here.
Without Penn’s grace and willingness to take chances, nothing would’ve set this apart from all the other character studies we saw in 2008, so I’d suggest checking out “The Life and Times of Harvey Milk” to get the story right from the source. On the other hand, Josh Brolin, Emile Hirsch, and James Franco are all outstanding and the vitality of the human spirit is on full display, so even as a straight guy, I found it very moving indeed.
“Slumdog Millionaire” – Since everyone has essentially anointed Danny Boyle’s festival darling as the film to beat, saying anything even remotely negative about it has become the sin of all sins. It’s the flashy, uplifting, yet mostly unbelievable flavor of the month that has taken on even more significance in the wake of what has happened in Mumbai. I found it very entertaining and worthy of a spot on my top ten list, but it’s just not the type of film that I feel will hold up ten years from now. People have become prisoners of the moment to this modern-day Cinderella story and looked past its obvious flaws.
For starters, Dev Patel plays the same annoying note throughout and never really moved me enough to the point that I wanted to root for his success. Maybe it was just the way the character was written, but he’s the same melodramatic sad sack from beginning to end. Also, the fact that each question coincides with an event from his life totally overextends in my opinion, but I suppose some filmgoers are just looking for that Disney-esque denouement.
“The Reader” – Of all the nominees, this is the one that has no business being mentioned in the same sentence as the others. Outside of the sublime Kate Winslet, nothing present here makes me jump out of my skin enough to want to give it a second look, so I guess we can attribute its success to the marketing prowess of Harvey Weinstein. He put a self-righteous Holocaust novel by Bernhard Schlink into the hands of director Stephen Daldry and came up with a film whose message is still begging to be deciphered.
Seriously, what exactly is the central theme here? Are we supposed to feel sorry for a woman who became a victim of her own illiteracy? Are we supposed to feel empathy for a kid who had a luscious affair with a beautiful woman twice his age only to have her disappear a few months later? Are we supposed to feel guilty for having sat back and allowed Adolf Hitler to orchestrate one of the largest ethnic cleansings in history? I’m not sure I have the answer to any of those questions, because Daldry never challenges you to pass judgment either way.
Once again, we have the case of a film trying to take on more gravity than it’s worth and leaving the audience wondering whether or not their time was well spent. As for Winslet, she’ll probably take home the hardware for her conflicted take on Hanna Schmitz and the far-superior “Revolutionary Road” will be left in the dust.
“Frost/Nixon” – The accuracy of Ron Howard’s riveting political drama has come under fire as of late, but does it really matter? He manages to take a minor historical event and turn it into an enthralling battle of wits between two men who can’t afford to lose. Every scene is played with menacing conceit by Frank Langella, who creates a Nixon able to transition between sinner and saint with frightening simplicity. His work is definitely among Sean Penn and Mickey Rourke as one of the finest performances of 2008 and I wouldn’t be surprised if his named is called.
Michael Sheen, however, seems to be the unsung hero in all this, because his placid work as David Frost has gone virtually unnoticed. Playing Frost may have been the more ambitious of the two roles due to the lack of acclaim and unfamiliarity with audiences, so Sheen should be praised for illustrating just how shrewd Frost could be when the pressure was on.
Overall, the film is top five worthy, but not quite on that winning level.
