FILM: A+
What defines our legacy? The way we lived, the way we die? The people we leave behind, the people we’ve touched, or those who we’ve hurt? Will our accomplishments be the best of us, or the failures? Success or scandal? Perhaps it’s the material belongings, art with our name on it, a simple photograph.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button follows the life from birth to death of one man who didn’t live an extraordinary life outside of one difference. He was born old physically, not mentally. He lives by growing younger, and when he dies, physically it will be as an infant. That monumental difference makes him a unique man, one which many of us envy. After age 40, most yearn to be much younger. But living is what you do between birth and death and Button (Brad Pitt) adapted to his peculiar circumstance. His mother died from his birth, his father rejected him and left him at the steps of a retirement home. One of the workers, Queenie (Taraji P. Henson) found him on the steps and was accepted in open arms, old age and all. In fact, by cheating death, he fit right in.

But the people he grew up with him in the Nolan House passed, a theme throughout the film, and it’s not until the granddaughter of one of the residents frequently visited that he found a reason to start living. Daisy (Cate Blanchett) found Benjamin fascinating, sensing something different about him, and with each visit she grew up. Benjamin was getting younger and began to experience the world outside. His story was just beginning.

We learn about the chapters of Button’s life as an 85-year old Daisy lies on her deathbed, her daughter (Julia Ormond) reading Button’s Diary aloud. His first job, his experience with the war, his first affair, and his unconditional love for Daisy and those who loved him the same way. And while comparing it to Forrest Gump might be easy to do Button’s life is one that a small circle of people get to really feel the impact. His legacy is a membership of ten to twelve people and he’s not responsible for any landmark moments in life, but he experienced them just the same as many of us, as witnesses.

With the help of Peter Badalamenti, Robert Towers, and Tom Everett (who play the “earlier years” of Button) Pitt is able to emote the thoughts and attitude of life’s different stages through his face no matter how old the viewer is. He tells us when he’s bewildered by something new, solemn, or let down through his eyes or the way he tilts in his head. He is to David Fincher as what James Stewart was to Hitchcock, or Leo DiCaprio is to Scorsese. Fincher takes arguably the biggest male celebrity of our days and brings him to our level, ordinary and an innocent bystander is this crazy thing we call life.

This is Fincher’s seventh feature film and is the most least likely of projects he’d be interested in. His body of work has always carried the weight of skepticism, cynicism and grim outlook of the world. This though, was something unexpected. Benjamin Button on paper felt like a Ron Howard film, but the guy who made Se7en? No. From the guy who made Zodiac? Most definitely. Zodiac gave Fincher the confidence to believe he could direct anything from nothing. If you saw how he created much of that film in special effects, you’d know that solving the problem of aging a man backwards was nothing but a technicality that he would figure out with his team of visual technicians. But Fincher recreates these time periods to fabricate a very real moment in time, real places to which we can relate to when all we had was the people in our lives and not just the off/on switch of a computer. The eras portrayed in the film warp us to much more contemplative days, when reflection was important and when life was so precious. So what brought Fincher to this sappy life of Benjamin Button?

It was a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby), from a collection of works called Tales of the Jazz Age. It’s no doubt a love story, but the comparisons between young and old were intangibles, but not just in the physical sense. I believe it’s the way Benjamin and Daisy view the world at various phases of their lives, their melancholic stroll through life, harmonic one moment, tragic the next. Youth services itself, and as one gets older, life is servicing others. How these divergent paths at life repeatedly cross paths at different moments and how the bond between them survives is a strong testament to the human condition and of love no matter what. But Fincher was ultimately drawn to the one thing that takes it away.

Because only then do any of us begin to look at a legacy, what we may leave behind, what we’ll be remembered for. The fear of not being able to add to it, to prolong it, to understand it, or even to remember it, sets in. By then it’s too late. Too late to regret, to be angry or change. You just have to let it go.

VIDEO: A+
Benjamin Button was captured on 1080p AVC-encoded high definition transfer that preserves the 2.40:1 aspect ratio, and what a fine transfer it is. Cinematography was just beautiful at times, scenes like the brothel, the Russian hotel, and the church tent were lit with low lit lamps and bulbs dripping in golden ambers and browns. Contrast ratio is set at the perfect level as shadow delineation was clear, and reflected off a polished surfaces. It just all looked so remarkable despite not trying to be overly showy. I want to add, as explained in the insert, that the film was shot almost exclusively in digital using a Viper FilmStream and Sony F23 cameras and then color corrected with FilmLight’s Baselight system. The exception to this was a few scenes shot in 35mm and then all of it was transferred to blu-ray.

The few bright colors that show themselves in either a painted wall, any one of Daisy’s dresses or on a shiny taxi cab look brilliant, but the real colors of the dark and muted world are on display most of the time. Blacks are rich and deep but without any loss of detail. Textures like the costumes accurately show the leather, wool, tweed and fabrics of their respected time periods. Skin tones not only look good but show a broad spectrum of work done by the aging teams. The prosthetic work to show old age, or digital work to take years away really wasn’t distracting. Perhaps the first time you see Benjamin in a different age, especially when appearing much older but otherwise the make-up work was seamless. Fincher’s crew have become masters at blending the effects so that they don’t look unnatural; an amazing effort that made it difficult to distinguish a practical shot from a digitally altered one. All under a soft and slightly grainy and diffused filter, Benjamin Button is just a gorgeous film and reference material for those who are aware of the subtle details of filmmaking.

AUDIO: A+
Flaunting a full-bodied 5.1 DTS-HD lossless audio track that’s filled with a variety of sounds but what stood out to me were the environment elements like the outdoor noises of morning, the chugging engine of a Model-T car, or the surrounding chatter in an old folks home really make this a fine audio mix. Of course there are moments that remind you it’s a big movie. Armistice Day fireworks appropriately burst and crackle the subwoofer in Benjamin’s introduction and the attack from the submarine makes you feel like you’re on the deck of the ship as bullets spray all around you-a definite demo chapter. Dynamic range is good whether it’s big moments like these or it’s Daisy on her deathbed whispering her last thoughts. Last but not forgotten is the music of Alexandre Desplat’s score, a lacy detail that shouldn’t go unnoticed in this complex mix. Also included are a 5.1 DD French and Spanish tracks with subtitles in English, English SDH, French and Spanish.

EXTRAS: A+
The Criterion Collection always puts forth the maximum effort with their editions of movies and their slow entrance into blu-ray thus far has been exceptional, continuing with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. First I need to glow on about the supplements and menu designer, David Prior which continued the look of an old 8 mm camera, complete with scratches and specks all on the screen with artsy stills consisted of empty set locations and black and white photography. In all of the interviews with cast and crew, a classic serif font is imposed on top a large script font running backward and just fits the film. The insert is the essay, The Man Who Watched The Hours Go By by Film Comment’s critic and editor-at-large, Kent Jones who always knows how to put a film into words. All of the supplements are in high definition, widescreen, and in Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo.

Disc One
Audio Commentary by Director, David Fincher is a great primer for the rest of the extras. He talks at a comfortable, relaxed rate about regrets, crucial technical decisions, death, misconceptions and incorrect public assumptions, and an ongoing theme of changing relationships. After turning the commentary on, there’s a Commentary Index that categorizes what Fincher talks about. There’s also a Timeline which you can start at different stages of Benjamin’s aging and bookmark it. Just more details by Criterion and Prior to show that this disc really cares about the film student.

Disc Two
The second disc which holds the bulk of the extra material is broken down into four categories: First Trimester, Second Trimester, Third Trimester, and Birth where each section explains which part of the filmmaking process of Benjamin Button. There is a play all option which plays most of the featurettes but if you play each section separately, then there are some vignettes and galleries that can be accessed that can’t be in the ?play all? option. Subtitles are available in English, French and Spanish.

FIRST TRIMESTER
Preface HD (3:08) – Fincher talks about his experience saying goodbye to his father and offers us a sampling of what he personally drew from for this story. Development and Pre-Production HD (28:56) – discusses how F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story in his anthology, Tales of the Jazz Age became a film project. Originally it began as a Steven Spielberg film with Tom Cruise, then a Ron Howard production then a David Fincher film. The big hurdle was how to execute the aging, and the location switch from Baltimore to New Orleans. Techical Scouts HD (12:23) – is one of the best extras I’ve seen in some time showing the footage of scouting locations for individual scenes to be shot where and how. It’s pretty amazing to see Fincher illustrate what each scene will and should look like, what needs to be changed, how the camera will shoot each scene, out of seemingly nothing when they’re ready to shoot. The true visionary foresight of a master. Storyboard Gallery (3:39) - 220 snapshots of digital and hand drawn storyboards. Production Gallery (00:49) – is a mixture of beautiful 49 diffused photos in black and white photos and color, paintings, of the shoot.

SECOND TRIMESTER
Production Part I HD (26:15) – starts off with the World War I Sequences with the stunts and saving money by being creative instead of being cheap, being historically accurate, casting Jason Flemyng and Taraji P. Henson, making animatronic babies and cinematographer Claudio Miranda talking about working with the Viper digital camera vs. the Dalsa. Production Part II HD (29:03) – picks up with the The Nolan House, Putting the Tugboat together on the Sony Lot, Make-up and prosthetics, the meticulous David Fincher, shooting Paris in Montreal, and working with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. Costume Design HD (7:38) – costume designer, Jacqueline West is interviewed about her preparation, and fittings with Brad and Cate and being in charge of creating 5000 costumes. Costume Gallery (00:24) – 24 pics of different costumes showcasing West’s work.

THIRD TRIMESTER HD
Nearly every corner is left uncovered in this Visual Effects and post-production exploration. Performance Capture (7:43) – shows how technology was used throughout the film. Benjamin (16:56) – takes a deeper look into Pitt’s face acting, animating hair, skin, and eyes. Youthenization (6:21) – shows how digital effects made brad and cate younger. The Chelsea (8:48) – While the tugboat was made from scratch and shot on the Sony lot, the water and the surroundings were all digital effects, even the submarine. The Simulated World (12:52) – One can believe a fabricated world if the details are done well. Paris, train stations, environments and even the clocks were all fabricated in some way shape or form. Sound Design (16:06) – capturing background noise, sound effects, and voicing Brad and Cate for each age. Alexandre Desplat’s Instrumentartion (14:53) – interviews the composer and takes a look at him creating the score as well as some of the musicians in his ensemble.

BIRTH
Premiere (4:20) The ceremony in New Orleans some parting words from the filmmakers and cast, and those involved with the featurettes. Production Stills (2:01) – 121 More production shots of principal shooting and behind the camera footage. Closing out the extras are two HD Trailers, a teaser (1:49) and a much longer theatrical one (2:42).

Overall Shock Value: A+
Fincher does it again. It’s a phrase I never get tired of saying because he continues to impress me as a filmmaker and a storyteller. After exhausting every second of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and its extras, this Criterion Collection blu-ray is a must-buy. Fincher always opens his movie-making process to the public and with each film he does we learn so much more than the last. Who’d have thought, Fincher would have put out this film, a film about unconditional love, life and death; yet his cynicism and pessimistic stamp is clearly there in its digital filmmaking glory. With a superb transfer, a smart and balanced audio mix, and supplements to keep you busy imagining endlessly, this is the essential way to watch this film. Go out and own it!

Ernie Estrella