I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sat down, watched a movie, and afterwards said oh man that reminded me of this or that movie. It happens all the time. Sometimes we realize it and sometimes we don’t. Often times it’s because it is the same story since it seems like every movie has been remade is about to be. At what point though do we take away from one movie because it reminded or was similar to another?
After watching The Curious Case of Benjamin Button I said the same thing that countless others have said… Forrest Gump. Though I must say it was a far less emotional Forrest Gump in my opinion. There were so many similarities that if you’ve seen one then you kinda get what will happen in the other. Come to find out like everyone else that the same person wrote both, Eric Roth. So does one movie take away from the other?
Yes and no. I don’t think that Benjamin Button becomes less of a film because of those similarities. Where Button is the same to Gump in some respects it certainly is different in other. Yes they have similar events and characters but ultimately the stories are told in very different ways. Gump lacked the visuals that Button exceeded at. Button lacked the emotion that Gump moved us with. They both take place in the south but in two radically different locations that greatly affect the stories. Good themes are good themes and if you take any of the themes and put them in other movies they can’t help but make the movie better, so it’s no wonder that Roth uses them again in Button.
Though where Button falls short is in credibility, especially come awards season. I can’t believe it received 13 Oscar nominations. Ok, the visuals were great and Brad Pitt was amazing with those spectacular special effects. Beyond that I can’t see anymore nominations. The story shared too much in common with Best Picture Winner Forrest Gump. Button is a good movie, but originality along the lines that this writer retold Forrest Gump deems that this movie shouldn’t be recognized for certain things. Put this movie up against Forrest Gump and it won’t win. It’s not fair to Gump or any other best picture winner to consider something as good when it’s a rehash by the same writer. Button was good but not that good and if it were that easy to get the nomination or even the win then most writers would be doing the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over. Annoying isn’t it?