Welcome 2009!

O.K., now it's official! I had a rather lovely start to my New Year. I rarely, if ever, go out to the movies anymore...something I have cherished doing since I was a kid. My parents took us out to the movies quite a bit. I am a HUGE movie buff, though I probably couldn't win any trivia games - but I love, love, love watching movies.

Anyway, over the years I've stopped going to the theaters for a variety of reasons. The primary reason has been the decline and fall of Western civilization. Ha. Or should I say the decline and disappearance of man's MANNERS and ETIQUETTE. Especially since the advent of cell phone technology! I *always* seem to be that one unlucky person that gets to experience the joy of having the back of my seat kicked, or having some really, really smelly person sit next to me. (Really, this has happened to me...there are far more stinky persons out there than you might realize!) Or I'll get stuck behind a freakishly tall person who sits down at the last minute in a packed theater, or I'll have to listen to two people talk throughout the movie...and now it's possible to hear actual phones ringing and hear ONE person talking to another unheard party! The JOY! My favourite is when some jackass sits near me, goes to sleep and starts SNORING LOUDLY. If anyone knows me, they know I cannot stand snoring.

I have very, very picky tastes about what movies I'll see - especially in the theater, but occasionally I'll get stuck sitting near highly annoying teenagers (please make every movie R-rated and enforce it) OR some supremely moronic parent will actually bring their baby or small child into the theater and it will proceed to scream, vomit, yell, throw things, run and up down the aisles, etc. The theater is NOT a nursery. People. You had a kid. Either get a babysitter or wait for it on DVD. Don't ruin life for the rest of us! God, I've seen people bring children into the most unsuitable films - unsuitable for children that is. How about the person who eats something in a plastic wrapper, loudly, for the entire two hours? Or brings in an entire meal to the theater - seriously, like someone just whips out some Korean bar-b-que and you are stuck there trying to concentrate and trying to identify the smell of...meat?

Also, to a lesser degree, I find not very many films these days are really worth $11-$13 a pop. I did pay $13 on a Friday night last August in L.A. to see a movie - not knowing it was going to be $13 - and I just could NOT get over it. I think even if I was a multi-millionaire I'd feel this way; it's just on principle. So I watch almost 99% of movies at home now, either on cable, via Netflix or DVD from Blockbuster. That's the only reason I'd love to get a really, really nice Sony Bravia LCD TV and a nice entertainment system. Someday!

Anyway, my mother and I bravely ventured out today to some relatively brand-new theaters - very nice- to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. We were the 4th people in the theater and got primo seats, but the theater did fill up. THANKFULLY, throughout the almost 3 hours I was in the theater, NO ONE did anything loud, rude or offensive. It was amazing. Almost miraculous. That theater should possibly be the new Lourdes. Either I got lucky and was sitting with the last civilized people on earth, or the movie was riveting enough to keep people from feeling the need to play games on their cell phones. It was like receiving a late Christmas gift.

And such a gift, considering the fact that this film is one of the most haunting, moving, beautifully made films I've ever seen. Everything about it glows. The cinematography is luminous and breathtaking. Director David Fincher's meticulous attention to detail with the period pieces, costumes, props, and most of all, the CGI make-up effects (which are essential to the telling of the story) are spectacular. The CGI effects are almost seamless. It's a truly magical experience, this movie. Benjamin Button is a rare, imaginative, original, unique and heartbreaking meditation on true love, love without limits, including the limits of external appearances and time. It is about joy and loss and acceptance the insanity of how temporary this crazy life is. Brad Pitt performs a somewhat serpentine but nevertheless clear and lovely monologue regarding the randomness and fragility of existence due to external circumstances; for example, if one tiny thing in life - a stranger's life, your life - changes - our Fates may be forever changed too. He speaks to this familiar phenomenon (true or imagined? Will we ever really know?) in a beautifully shot montage of little vignettes and imagined moments and shows us in an achingly knowing manner how our Fates are almost always (indeed, most often unknowingly to us) wrapped up in and often hinge on the actions, and reactions of others, no matter how small or seemingly inconsequential.

Brad Pitt gives a rich, nuanced performance and I quite impressed with his acting skills here. He's extremely sensitive and measured - I think even a bit reserved - but it's nice to see him reveal a bit more range in a film. It has been almost 13 hours since I saw the movie and I'm still sitting here thinking about it. Although I know Pitt is very 'classically' good-looking and handsome, I have never personally felt attracted to him. But his good looks do serve him well here; when you are asked to accept the conceit of a man aging backwards, Pitt's beauty is all the more stunning as he approaches middle age. I can only wonder what kind of thoughts went through his mind as he saw himself in make-up and with the CGI effects; he truly is in his prime, looks-wise.

The actual film runs about 2 hours and 47 minutes but I hardly felt I was in the theater even 2 hours. David Fincher keeps the film moving along at a comfortable and engaging pace. There were some rather funny bits, but overall, this is a more somber piece. Not morose, or cloying, or even sentimental; there is pathos - but without preciousness or pity. There are several scenes at the very end that could be, I suppose, on the face of it, funny, but they are so touching, and beautiful and speak more to the power and timelessness of love than anything I've ever seen onscreen. I especially enjoyed the main setting for the film, New Orleans, which kept making me think about my dear friend Veleska.

It wasn't a perfect film - but for me it's pretty darn close. I was interested to find the idea for the film came from a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. However, I read the film's writers took amazing liberties with the story and even without reading Fitzgerald's piece, I can imagine for the better. I suppose you can blame it on hormones, but I pretty much wept on and off throughout the entire film. Even when I was laughing. There are few films that truly speak to, and of, the human condition in such a beautiful and lasting way. I think The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is one of them and I am always so grateful to see the there are still magical films being made, and that even I can still have a great experience in a theater once in a while.

A lovely way to start the New Year.