Button Looks Great, Less Filling

Brad Pitt ages in reverse thanks to a special-effects miracle
By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 24, 2008 3:47 PM CST

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is enjoyable and visually striking, but many critics feel David Fincher and Brad Pitt fail to mine the story of a man who ages in reverse for moments of real emotional depth. Pitt “gives you no hint what his character makes of the changes,” writes David Edelstein in New York, “he just stares ahead and lets his makeup do the acting.”

Peter Travers agrees: “There’s a light in Pitt’s performance when Ben is a freak of nature, but the pretty-boy stuff doesn’t engage him,” he writes in Rolling Stone. The film’s serious subjects—aging, fleeting time—make “Button feel pretty big for its britches,” writes Michael Phillips in the Chicago Tribune. “Yet it’s worth seeing because the sights are truly something.” (More Brad Pitt stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X