DVD powerhouse the Criterion Collection is justly famed for its lavish boxed sets resurrecting long-unavailable art-house classics. So the news of its collaboration with mammoth studio Paramount on the release of last year’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button may come as a surprise. But a review of the company’s past releases shows that, besides a few missteps—Armageddon and a perhaps too-slavish devotion to Wes Anderson—Criterion’s stewardship of our cinematic heritage has been spot-on. In fact, with Benjamin Button, released in an extras-packed two-disc set from Criterion (with a bare-bones single-disc option), David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club, Zodiac) joins the likes of Wong Kar-Wai, Guy Maddin, and David Gordon Green as a Criterion-endorsed contemporary director. The film, one of 2008′s most divisive (the New Yorker, in two separate reviews, called it both “a sumptuous and stirring work of art” and “an attenuated folly”), tells the tale—based loosely on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald—of a man who ages in reverse, born as a decrepit old man and dying as a a newborn. Featuring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, Benjamin Button is one of a host of recent films that unexpectedly combine big studio budgets and auteurist visions. The movie is unquestionably beautiful, its tragic love story varnished to a rosy glow, its stars looking like the Kennedys when they meet in the middle of their opposed chronological trajectories. The passage of time, with its relentless inconveniences and tragedies, is the issue at heart, and perhaps there was no avoiding the accusations of hubris with such a lofty theme. But Fincher—the real star of Benjamin Button—has a light and knowing touch, and it’s a welcome surprise to find he can handle a frothy tale of love and loss with the assuredness he brought to his earlier, darker work.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is out now from The Criterion Collection.

KEYWORDS: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, David Fincher, DVDs, film, The Criterion Collection

* Required Field

Your Name: *

Your E-Mail: *

Your Remark:

Friend's Name: *

Separate multiple entries with a comma. Maximum 5 entries.

Friend's E-Mail: *

Separate multiple entries with a comma. Maximum 5 entries.

Image Verification: *

 Loading ...