Movie critics are often good ones to highlight a hidden gem or to warn against an impending bomb. Normally, there are a few I find helpful in choosing how to invest my viewing time.
Not so much in recent weeks.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a curious case of misplaced critical love. This movie received 13 Oscar nominations, winning three, and a 71% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. In our opinion, the movie was tedious, disheartening, and weird.
It tells the story of one Benjamin Button who is born when he is 80 something and as the years progress, he regresses to childhood and infancy. While the world ages, he gets younger. Sort of.
I believe that science fiction and fantasy can be great media through which important questions of life and wisdom can be raised, faced, considered. Benjamin Button really ponders nothing deeper than how awful it would be to grow younger as one ages.
I was happy to find that Barb and I were not alone in our assessment. Roger Ebert expresses our discomfort with the film precisely.
+ + + + +
A similar but opposite experience confronted us Saturday night as we watched Inkheart. Here is a movie that was so largely canned by the critics (39% on Rotten Tomatoes) that I was a bit uncertain in watching it, expecting that we would be disappointed.
We weren’t.
The film was, in my opinion, wonderfully shot, well paced, and intriguing to the end. It’s greatest asset was a wonderfully selected cast including charming performances by Brendan Fraser, Andy Serkis, Paul Bettany, Jim Broadbent, and Helen Mirren.
Perhaps I’m just a sucker for films that ponder the power of the written word to bring worlds to life. Perhaps I find too much interest in the question of how the stories of our lives are being written. Perhaps I bring too much philosophic pondering to movies I watch.
The movie raises such issues for me. But that it does did not dim at all the intensity with which the film was watched by the four children, all under ten, crowded onto our couch watching with us.
A family film flirting with philosophical and theological questions keeping single digit kids on the edge of their seats, with well cast, quality actors. What more could one want?
MagistraCarminum
We agree with you on both films! Hated Benjamin Button, and really enjoyed Inkheart!
The Domestic Intellectual
Haven't seen Benjamin Button, but a few friends went to see it and thought it tedious, so I decided to just skip it.I also loved Inkheart! I didn't read any reviews, but saw a clip on the plane when I flew to England in May and had to see it.My sister and I rented it last weekend and were not disappointed! The casting was excellent and Helen Mirren's character was priceless 🙂 I want to be like that when I get older!
Seth
Amy and I loved Inkheart! We saw it in the theaters, and again when it came out on DVD. There aren't many movies that I would enjoy a 2nd or 3rd time, but Inkheart was one of them.