Movie Review: The Curious Case of Benjabutt

If you have any memories of childhood, you know that the best thing in life in those days was making fun of other kids' names. And no one had a name more enjoyable to make fun of than kids with the name "Benjamin." You could call these kids "Ben Dover," or you could call them "Ben Gay." But the best of all was the most withering of all name-mockeries: "Benjabutt."

(Full disclosure: I'm not entirely sure, but I think that I might have invented "Benjabutt" when I was in third grade. So, if you've ever entertained yourself by calling one of your classmates "Benjabutt," your welcome.)

So what would happen if someone was actually born with the name, "Benjamin Button"? That's the subject of the new Paramount Pictures movie starring Brad Pitt.

The central tragedy of Benjamin Button's life is that he can never tell people to stop calling him Benjabutt because that's his real name... or at least a legitimate diminuative of it. How could a boy ever cope with such a burden? Can you imagine if he ended up in the third grade with a classmate like me? He would be scarred for life!

From the trailer I watched, it looks like the way he copes is to age backwards from a seventy year-old man. That way, when he's in grade school, he'll have sixty odd years of experience and emotional maturity to handle being called Benjabutt every single day of his miserable existence.

An ingenious plot twist, but I don't think it will work. "Benjabutt" is just too powerful. No mere mortal can withstand it's ego-crushing force. The Curious Case of Benjabutt could only work as a tragedy, not the romantic comedy its being billed as.

Two out of four stars.