Failed Oscar Campaigns: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (2008)

Scene from The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

As awards seasons pick up, so do the campaigns to make your film have the best chances at the Best Picture race. However, like a drunken stupor, sometimes these efforts come off as trying too hard and leave behind a trailer of ridiculous flamboyance. Join me on every other Saturday for a highlight of the failed campaigns that make this season as much about prestige as it does about train wrecks. Come for the Harvey Weinstein comments and stay for the history. It's going to be a fun time as I explore cinema's rich history of attempting to matter.

The Movie

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

Directed By: David Fincher

Written By: Eric Roth (Screenplay), Eric Roth & Robin Swicord (Story), F. Scott Fitzgerald (Short Story)

Starring: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Romance

Running Time: 166 minutes

Summary: Tells the story of Benjamin Button, a man who starts aging backwards with bizarre consequences.

The Movie

While Brad Pitt has had an impressive and lengthy career over the past three decades he has become better known in the film industry as a producer. His previous two Oscar nominations were for producing The Big Short, Moneyball, and 12 Years a Slave (of which he won for). It's partially what makes this season excited, especially since this would mark his first acting nomination since Moneyball in 2011. Considering that both Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood and Ad Astra are receiving acclaim, there's even talk that he could wind up as one of the even rarer double nominees. As he moves into the status of Hollywood royalty, it's exciting to know that he's still capable of giving performances that remind us why he's been beloved for this long.

Among his most noteworthy shifts came in 2008 with director David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. In some respects, the film was a bit of an oddity for Fincher. It marked his first PG-13 movie as well as one of his most hopeful tales to date. However, it played into something that he's always been interested in as a filmmaker: technological advancements. To look at his previous filmography is to notice him manipulating spaces with special effects. Some of it has aged better than others, but there's no denying that he is a pioneer with techniques, even in his previous collaboration with Pitt, Fight Club. Still, both were starting to be seen as more than popcorn enthusiasts. They were about to enter the prestige circles that they would continue to inhabit to this day.

And for good reason. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was the major release for both Warner Bros. and Paramount Studios. It had Kathleen Kennedy producing, and was to be the major release of the Christmas season. It would even go on to have the highest box office gross for any of the five Best Picture nominees. It was sold as a classic big studio movie full of sweeping romance and nearly three-hour running time. It even would receive acclaim for being a contemporary Forrest Gump-style film, as writer Eric Roth would claim, "without the AIDS." It came at the height of Pitt's fame, especially in his very public relationship with Angelina Jolie. 

Still, the film's biggest selling point was the special effects. Not since Titanic had there been a film that so expertly mixed special effects with a compelling love story. Considering Fincher's career, it made sense that his ability to make seamless effects in the real world work would make this a big selling point. It was to be among the most revolutionary films of the 2000s. It was also the moment when Pitt was going to start being taken seriously. It would find him managing to perform under layers of make-up and create something sentimental and sweet. While the film's legacy hasn't quite been as memorable as Titanic or Avatar, it has a special place in the pop culture zeitgeist of big-budgeted movies that had a term in the lexicon. "The Benjamin Button Effect" became a joke for anything that aged in reverse, such as actors who looked youthful in spite of their advanced age. Still, the film is an odd little footnote in everyone's careers and one that's worth looking back at in light of Pitt's potential nominations in 2019.

- The Campaign -

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was a film that had been in development since the 1980s. Among the talent previously attached were directors Frank Oz and Steven Spielberg. However, no version came to pass and the project was long considered to be in development hell. When they brought aboard Fincher and Pitt, the project finally got off the ground with help from Warner Bros. and Paramount Studios teaming up to present the film with a $150 million budget. It was to be a big gamble, especially since the source material was a short story. Most of whatever would come from the screenplay would not be from F. Scott Fitzgerald, but from the screenwriters. Contemporary events were even brought into the story, as there was a wraparound device featuring symbolic clocks and the Hurricane Katrina tragedy. In small ways, the film was striving to be contemporary.

Among the first things to be recognized in the marketing campaign was the special effects. Given that the titular Benjamin Button (Pitt) was to age from an old man into a baby, it would require him to look convincing at every age. As a result, trailers focused on him as a small old man before transitioning into a younger one that was more akin to what Pitt looked like. Audiences were convinced and the film gained steam as the special effects extravaganza of the Christmas season. This was the first step in its plan. It wasn't a big summer blockbuster, but a small romance, making the fact of turning Pitt into an old man all the more impressive. If nothing else, the film was a lock for technical categories.

The film also received acclaim for Pitt, whose profile had been on the rise throughout the previous decade. With a mix of experimental films and mainstream fares like Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Ocean's Eleven, he was now a legitimate movie star. While he had been nominated previously for Twelve Monkeys, it had been over a decade since he was nominated and his career had yet to have a genuine hit that aligned with Oscar pundits (save for an appearance alongside co-star Cate Blanchett in Best Picture nominee Babel from 2006). With the prestige built up around the film, he stood a great chance of standing out. Add in that he was at the height of his popularity, he was bound to receive some recognition. He was also acclaimed for having to work under special effects and make-up for his character, of which Blanchett said Pitt got so annoying for just talking about moisturizers. Still, it was his moment to be taken seriously as an actor.

The results panned out. The film became a critical darling with many praising its special effects as well as Pitt's performance. Many saw it as Fincher entering a new period of his career. He had been a filmmaker who made aggressive and cynical films prior to this but was now making a sweet and tender story about the value of life. It was the big studio blockbuster that reminded audiences of films that they used to make, specifically in relation to Oscars. It was the throwback film that was going to lead them to Oscar glory. Then it became a box office sensation, earning $333 million internationally. It became the highest-grossing film of the Best Picture nominees of that year. 

It also helped that Pitt and co-star Tilda Swinton had starred in Burn After Reading a few months prior. Burn After Reading was the follow-up to Joel and Ethan Coen's Best Picture winner No Country for Old Men and featured a caliber cast playing goofy. Between the spy comedy and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Pitt looked more charismatic than ever. With two of the biggest movies of the Fall season, he had a high profile and a chance to get to Oscar night. Considering that The Curious Case of Benjamin Button received several awards nominations in the months leading up to the Oscar nominations, everything was going well for Fincher's first (and to date only) PG-13 film full of optimism and promise. It was the big-budgeted extravaganza that Oscar season needed, but could it compete with the heavy hitters?

- The Payoff -

Considering its phenomenal numbers and critical acclaim, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button not only slid into Oscar nominations with ease, but it also dominated them. With 13 total, it leads with the most nominations of any movie. This included categories in almost every field ranging from Best Picture, Best Director (Fincher), and Best Actor (Pitt) to Best Original Score (Alexandre Desplat) and even Best Special Effects. Even co-star Taraji P. Henson would receive a Best Supporting Actress nomination. It was the success story that everyone was hoping for, especially as this big-budgeted gamble that many saw as being on the way out. It was a romantic drama that could've easily failed. When it succeeded, it became the phenomenon many expected.

While there was some concern that the special effects branch of The Academy would notice every last element of it in the film, the fact that the entire Academy voted proved to help the film. Because of this, it was able to win three Oscars: Best Visual Effects, Best Hair and Make-Up, and Best Art Direction. They were all fields that none of the other Oscar nominees excelled in. However, the film wasn't enough to push off front-runner Slumdog Millionaire from the Best Picture position. It also didn't keep many other more traditional prestige movies from winning many of the other categories. Still, it ended the season as the most popular film in the group. The only film that could've outdone it, The Dark Knight, failed to get a Best Picture nomination and thus lead to the now mandatory expanded Best Picture category. 

Still, it was Fincher's biggest box office success (until Gone Girl) and it established Pitt as an Oscar heavyweight. Whereas it took 13 years between 12 Monkeys and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Pitt's love of producing helped him become a more frequent nominee, eventually winning for 12 Years a Slave. As a whole, the film marked a moment when Pitt and Fincher were taken seriously. Two years later, Fincher would gain even more acclaim for The Social Network, again using technology to alter the perception of the human form. Even the rise of Avatar a year later usurped its conversation of being a revolutionary in the special effects category. With that said, the film created "The Benjamin Button Effect" and made it into a popular punchline for anyone aging in reverse. While it is a film that hasn't withstood the test of time in terms of popularity, it still receives praise for its technical achievements and mature story, which helped it land in the Criterion Collection and become more than another farcical piece of Oscar bait. It was the start of a new era of how we saw the human form on-screen, and things were never the same after that.