The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Soundtrack) by Alexandre Desplat - Reviewed

The Beautiful Score of Benjamin Button
Review by Christopher Coleman

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON is an epic tale of one man’s life…a life lived backwards of sorts. Born in an old and withered body, but infant in size and in all other regards, Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt) begins his double journey of growing older mentally and emotionally, yet younger physically. His unique journey which begins in a convalescent home in Louisiana brings him across a myriad of characters who each have at least one important lesson to teach the young Benjamin. Among them, he meets the true love of his life, Daisy (Cate Blanchette). Though they are immediately separated by the most unique of all age differences, the two destined lovers criss-cross paths throughout their lives. Both Benjamin and Daisy are set on their own journeys which take them a part, around the globe, but time and time again, eventually back to each other.

Matching David Fincher's fairy-tale like film is ALEXANDER DESPLAT's enchanting score. What works so well in many of the movies Desplat tends to write for (THE GIRL WITH THE PEARL EARRING, THE PAINTED VEIL) is his minimalist approach. Desplat is masterful at capturing the emotional essence of the film with minimal instrumentation. Although there was an 87 piece orchestra used for this film, it rarely sounds like it. As his music did in the aforementioned films, only moreso, DESPLAT's score for THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON offers a magical element to the film. What Fincher accomplishes visually, Desplat does so through his music. They both create a world that is, at once, fanciful yet real. For his part, DESPLAT delivers a handful of well positioned themes, motifs and instrumentation that captures the essence of Benjamin, his circle of friends and family as well as it's locale. The end result is a melodic and introspective musical experience that has its own charm outside the context of the film.

Read the full review here

Fantastic new trailer for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Back in May of this year the teaser trailer for director David Fincher's next visual treat debuted with the release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The mesmerizing and tantalizing images were musically backed by the equally mesmermizing and tantalizing piece "The Aquarium" from Carnival of the Animals. It was nearly a perfect trailer and, to tell you the truth, I was more excited about the potential of this THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON than what the latest Indy film did for me.

For sometime it has been a toss up as to which film I was most looking forward to seeing this December: AUSTRALIA or BENJAMIN BUTTON.  Recently a second full length trailer was released and with that, "Old" BENJAMIN BUTTON is by far the front runner now.

While the first trailer emphasized the wonderous and mystical, this new trailer grounds the drama a bit more.  Included in that "grounding" is "new" musical accompaniment.  Now, I 'm not certain if these are excerpts of ALEXANDRE DESPLAT's new score for the film, but  I do not recognize it off-hand.  What we hear certainly could be...as the score was recorded some time ago (check out scoringsessions.com's coverage) and is certainly in Desplat's minimalist vein.

Regardless, this movie looks amazingly good.  With the under-appreciated Brad Pitt, the always fantastic Cate Blanchette at the heart of the film and with David Fincher as the mastercraftsman over the entire project, my hopes could be no higher.   I'm also betting that THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON is going to be a far better showcase for Desplat's talents than the overly-gushed GOLDEN COMPASS was last year.  So what do you say?

Check out the new trailer here