The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

21.01 in Film

In 2005, Daisy, an elderly woman, is on her deathbed in a New Orleans hospital. Daisy asks her daughter, Caroline, to read aloud from the diary of Benjamin Button. In 1918, Mr. Gateau, a blind New Orleans clockmaker, loses his son on the battlefields of France in World War I. As a way to deal with the grief, Gateau builds a large clock for the New Orleans train station, but fixes it so that the time goes in reverse. When asked why, Gateau states that maybe time will reverse and the men lost in the war—including his son—might come home again.

On the evening of November 11, 1918, a boy is born with the appearance and physical maladies of a very elderly man. The baby's mother dies shortly after giving birth, and the father, Thomas Button, abandons the infant on the porch of a nursing home. Queenie and Mr. "Tizzy" Weathers, who work at the nursing home, find the baby, and Queenie decides to care for him as her own.

In 1930, 12-year-old Benjamin, having exchanged a wheelchair for crutches, befriends six-year-old Daisy, whose grandmother lives in the nursing home. As Benjamin's body grows younger, he accepts work on a tugboat. Benjamin also meets Thomas Button, who does not reveal that he is Benjamin's father. In 1936, Benjamin leaves New Orleans with the tugboat crew for a long-term work engagement. He eventually finds himself in Murmansk, where he starts an affair with Elizabeth Abbott, wife of the British Trade Minister.

In 1941, while the tugboat crew is still in Russia, Japan attacks the U.S. at Pearl Harbor thrusting America into World War II. Mike, the captain, volunteers the boat to be a ship in the U.S. Navy and the crew is assigned to scrap collection duty. During a patrol, the tugboat stumbles upon a sunken U.S. transport and the bodies of hundreds of American troops. While surveying the carnage, a German submarine surfaces. Knowing his duty Mike steers the tugboat full speed towards the sub while a German gunner fires on the tugboat killing most of the crew including Mike. The tugboat rams the submarine causing it to explode sinking both vessels. The next day Benjamin and one other crew member are picked up by ships of the U.S. Navy.

In 1945, Benjamin returns to New Orleans, and learns that 21-year-old Daisy has become a successful ballet dancer. Benjamin again crosses paths with Thomas Button, who, terminally ill, reveals that he is Benjamin's father. Thomas wills Benjamin his possessions before he dies.

Daisy's dance career is ended in Paris in 1957, when she is hit by a taxi cab and breaks her leg. When Benjamin goes to see her, Daisy is amazed at his youthful appearance, but frustrated at her own injuries; she tells him to stay out of her life. In 1962, Daisy returns to New Orleans and reunites with Benjamin. Now of comparable physical age, they fall in love and move in together.

Daisy gives birth to a girl, Caroline in 1968. Benjamin, believing he cannot be a father figure to his daughter due to his reverse aging, sells his belongings and leaves the proceeds to Daisy and Caroline. He travels the world alone during the 1970s.

Benjamin, appearing to be in his early twenties, returns to Daisy in 1980. Now re-married, Daisy introduces Benjamin to her husband and daughter as a family friend. Daisy then visits Benjamin at his hotel, where they share their passion for each other. Daisy admits that Benjamin was right to leave; she could not have coped otherwise. Benjamin departs again.

In 1991, widowed Daisy receives a phone call from social workers. They have found Benjamin — now apparently about 12 years old — living in a condemned building, and have contacted her because they found her name in his diary. The bewildered social workers say that his condition resembles dementia. Daisy moves into the nursing home where Benjamin grew up and takes care of him as he becomes increasingly younger until, physically, he becomes an infant once more. In 2003, he dies in Daisy's arms remembering who she was. Benjamin's story now told, Daisy dies in her New Orleans hospital bed, as Hurricane Katrina approaches.

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Big Fish

20.47 in Film

At his son's wedding party, Edward Bloom (Albert Finney) tells the same tale he's told many times over the years: on the day Will (Billy Crudup) was born, he was out catching an enormous uncatchable fish, using his wedding ring as bait. Will is annoyed, explaining to his wife Joséphine (Marion Cotillard) that because his father never told the straight truth about anything, he felt unable to trust him. He is troubled to think that he might have a similarly difficult relationship with his future children. Will's relationship with his father becomes so strained that they do not talk for three years. But when his father's health starts to fail, Will and the now pregnant Joséphine return to Alabama. On the plane, Will recalls his father's tale of how he braved a swamp as a child, and met a witch (Helena Bonham Carter) who showed him his death in her glass eye. With this knowledge, Edward knew there were no odds he could not face.

Edward continues telling tall tales, claiming he spent three years confined to a bed as a child because his body was growing too fast. He became a successful sports player, but found the town of Ashton too small for his ambition, and set off with the misunderstood giant Karl (Matthew McGrory). Edward discovers the hidden town of Spectre, where everyone is friendly to the point of comfortably walking around barefoot. Edward leaves because he does not want to settle anywhere yet, but promises to a young girl named Jenny (Hailey Anne Nelson) that he will return. Karl and Edward begin working at a circus; Edward works without pay, as he has been promised by the ringmaster Amos Calloway (Danny DeVito) that each month he will learn something new about a girl he fell in love with (at first sight). Three years later, having only learned trivia about her, Edward discovers Amos is a werewolf. In return for his refusal to harm him in his monstrous state, Amos tells Edward the girl's name is Sandra Templeton (Alison Lohman) and she studies at Auburn University.

Edward learns Sandra is engaged to Don Price (David Denman), whom Edward always overshadowed during his days in Ashton. Sandra makes Edward promise not to fight Don. Don beats Edward up when he learns about his feelings for her, but this only disgusts Sandra into ending their engagement and falling for Edward. Edward later reveals that Don died from a heart attack on the toilet bowl at an early age (as Don saw in the Witch's eye). During his recovery, Edward is conscripted by the army and sent to the Korean War. He parachutes into the middle of a show entertaining North Korean troops, steals important documents, and convinces Siamese twin dancers Ping and Jing to help him get back to the United States, where he will make them stars. He is unable to contact anyone on his journey home, and the military declares him dead. This limits Edward's job options when he does return home, so he becomes a traveling salesman. Meeting the poet Norther Winslow from Spectre again, he unwittingly helps him rob a bank, which is already bankrupt. Edward suggests Winslow work at Wall Street, and Winslow thanks Edward for his advice by sending him $10,000, which he uses to buy a dream house.

Still unimpressed by his father's stories, Will demands to know the truth, but Edward explains that is who he is: a storyteller. Will finds Spectre, and meets an older Jenny (Helena Bonham Carter), who explains that Edward rescued the town from bankruptcy by buying it at an auction and rebuilding it with financial help from many of his previous acquaintances. Will suggests his father had been having an affair with Jenny, to which she replies that while she had indeed fallen in love with him, Edward could never love any woman other than Sandra. When Will returns home, he is informed his father had a stroke and is at the hospital. He goes to visit him there and finds him only partly conscious, and unable to speak at length. Since Edward can no longer tell stories, he asks Will to tell him the story of how it all ends: escaping from the hospital, they go to the river where everyone in Edward's life appears to bid him goodbye. Will carries his father into the river where he becomes what he always had been: a very big fish. Edward then dies, knowing his son finally understands his love of storytelling. At the funeral, Will sees many of his father's more unusual friends, including Amos, Karl, Ping and Jing, and Norther Winslow. Will realizes that his father's stories were true, only exaggerated, making Karl a giant (he is, in fact, 7'6") and making Ping and Jing conjoined when they are merely twins. When his own son is born, Will passes on his father's stories, remarking that his father became his stories, allowing him to live forever.

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Shawsank Redemption

19.15 in Film

In 1947, banker Andrew "Andy" Dufresne (Tim Robbin) is convicted of murdering his wife and her lover, based on circumstantial evidence. He is sentenced to two consecutive life sentences at Shawshank State Penitentiary in Maine, run by Warden Samuel Norton (Bob Gunton). During the first night the chief guard, Byron Hadley (Clancy Brown), savagely beats a newly arrived inmate who later dies in the infirmary. Andy befriends Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding (Morgan Freeman), an inmate serving a life sentence whose paroleapplication was recently rejected. Red is known for obtaining contraband and is able to procure a rock hammer for Andy, allowing him to create small stone chess pieces. Red jokes that Andy might use it to break out until he sees how small the hammer is. Andy later obtains a large poster of Rita Hayworth from Red, followed in later years by Marilyn Monroe and Raquel Welch.

During the first two years of his incarceration, Andy works in the prison laundry. He attracts attention from "the Sisters", a group of prisoners who sexually assault other prisoners, and their leader Bogs (Mark Rolston). Though he persistently resists, Andy is beaten and raped on a regular basis.

Later, Andy overhears Hadley complain about having to pay taxes on a forthcoming inheritance and, after explaining a legal loophole to him, is reassigned to assist the prison librarian, elderly inmate Brooks Hatlen (James Whitmore), a pretext to allow him to work on financial requests full time. His financial advice is soon sought by other guards at Shawshank and by visiting guards from nearby prisons. Hadley delivers a crippling beating to Bogs, after his gang's brutal assault puts Andy in the infirmary. Andy is left alone by the gang from then on.

Using his goodwill with Norton, Andy helps to expand the prison library by writing weekly letters to the state government for funds. When one donation to the library provides him with a recording of The Marriage of Figaro, he plays an excerpt over the public address system, well aware he will receive solitary confinement for doing so. Norton develops a scheme that uses prison labor for public works, undercutting the cost of skilled labor and receiving kickbacks. He has Andy launder the money under the false identity of "Randall Stevens", in exchange for allowing him to keep his private cell and continue maintaining the library. Brooks is freed on parole and moves into a halfway house, but unable to adjust to the outside world, he hangs himself and the expanded library is dedicated to him.

In 1965, Tommy Williams (Gil Bellows) is incarcerated on robbery charges. He joins Andy and Red's circle of friends, and Andy assists him in getting his GED. When he hears the details of Andy's case, Tommy reveals that an inmate at another prison, Elmo Blatch (Bill Bolender), claimed to have committed a nearly identical murder, suggesting Andy's innocence.

Fearing Andy might tell of his corruption if released, Norton refuses to cooperate. After they argue, he throws Andy into solitary confinement for two months. Norton has Hadley kill Tommy, making it look like a failed escape attempt.

Andy returns to his regular cell block and tells Red of his dream of living in Zihuatanejo, a Mexican Pacific coastal town, and setting up a hotel with boat rides for his customers. While Red shrugs it off as unrealistic, Andy instructs him, should he ever be freed, to visit a specific hayfield near Buxton to retrieve a package.

The next day at roll call, Andy's cell is empty. When Norton, angry at Andy's disappearance, throws one of Andy's rocks at the poster of Raquel Welch, the rock tears through the poster, revealing a tunnel that Andy dug with the rock hammer over the last two decades. The night before, Andy switched Norton's ledger with his prison-issue Bible, took the ledger, his chess set, and one of Norton's suits and escaped through the tunnel and a narrow sewage drain during a thunderstorm.

After escaping, Andy poses as Randall Stevens to withdraw most of the corruption money from several banks, then sends evidence of Norton's corruption and murder of Tommy to a local newspaper. The police arrive at the prison and Hadley is arrested, but Norton commits suicide to evade arrest.

Red receives parole after serving 40 years and is allocated the apartment where Brooks committed suicide, and works at the same grocery store. Just like Brooks, Red begins to fear the outside world. Remembering Andy's advice, he visits Buxton and finds a cache of money as well as a note left by Andy, telling him to get to Zihuatanejo. Red violates his parole and travels to Fort Hancock, Texas to skip the border to Mexico. The two are happily reunited on the beach to begin a new life.

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Forrest Gump

21.25 in Film

Ever find the grind of life getting you down? Is the day-to-day struggle threatening to drag you under? If so, there is a movie out there that can replenish your energy and refresh your outlook. Passionate and magical, Forrest Gump is a tonic for the weary of spirit. For those who feel that being set adrift in a season of action movies is like wandering into a desert, the oasis lies ahead.

Back when Tom Hanks' movie career was relatively new, the actor made a film called Big, which told the story of a young boy forced to grow up fast as a result of an ill-advised wish made at a carnival. In some ways, Forrest Gump represents a return to the themes of that earlier movie. In this case, the main character remains a child in heart and spirit, even as his body grows to maturity. Hanks is called upon yet again to play the innocent.

Forrest Gump (Hanks), named after a civil war hero, grows up in Greenbow, Alabama, where his mother (Sally Field) runs a boarding house. Although Forrest is a little "slow" (his IQ is 75, 5 below the state's definition of "normal"), his mental impairment doesn't seem to bother him, his mother, or his best (and only) friend, Jenny Curran (played as an adult by Robin Wright). In fact, the naivete that comes through a limited understanding of the world around him gives Forrest a uniquely positive perspective of life.

During the next thirty years, Forrest becomes a star football player, a war hero, a successful businessman, and something of a pop icon. Through it all, however, there is one defining element in his life: his love for Jenny. She is never far from his thoughts, no matter what he's doing or where he is.

A trio of assets lift Forrest Gump above the average "lifestory" drama: its optimism, freshness, and emotional honesty. Though the movie does not seek to reduce every member of the audience to tears, it has moments whose power comes from their simplicity. Equally as important is laughter, and Forrest Gump has moments of humor strewn throughout.

During the 60s and 70s, no topic more inflamed the turbulent national consciousness than that of Vietnam and those who were sent overseas to fight. Forrest, as might be expected, has a singular viewpoint on his time spent there: "We took long walks and were always looking for this guy named Charlie." In this observation can be found the essence of the title character's nature.

Through the miracle of visual effects, Forrest meets his fair share of famous people - George Wallace, Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, and John Lennon. While mixing the real footage of these notables with new images featuring Hanks is not a seamless process, the result is nevertheless effective.

Forrest Gump has several messages, some of which are less obvious than others. The most frequently recurring theme is an admonition not to give up on life. Why surrender when you don't know what lies ahead? By contrasting Forrest's life with the lives of those around him, and by showing how the passage of time brings solace to even the most embittered hearts, the movie underlines this point.

Tom Hanks won last year's Academy Award for Philadelphia, but his performance here is more impressive. The Alabama accent may seem a little awkward at first, but it doesn't take long for the acting to dwarf the twang. Hanks has no difficulty creating a totally human character who is free of guile and deceit, and barely able to comprehend a concept like evil. Robin Wright gives the best performance of her career, surpassing what she accomplished in The Playboys. Looking and seeming like a younger Jessica Lange, she is believable as the object of Forrest's undying affection. The real scene-stealer, however, is Gary Sinise. A renowned director and theatrical actor, Sinise is probably best known to film-goers for his portrayal of George in 1992's Of Mice and Men (which he also directed). In this movie, his Lieutenant Dan Taylor is riveting. The passion and pain he brings to the middle portions of Forrest Gump hold together some of the film's weaker moments.

The soundtrack boasts a wide variety of sounds of the era -- perhaps too wide a variety. Often, music can be useful in establishing a mood, but Forrest Gump rockets into the realm of overkill. There are sequences when the choice of song is inspired (the use of "Running on Empty" for Forrest's "long run" comes to mind), but the soundtrack could have used a little pruning.

Ultimately, however, any gripes about Forrest Gump are minor. This is a marvelous motion picture -- a mint julep on a hot summer's afternoon.

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