The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button You can’t turn back the clock, and even if you could love and loss would still come tumbling down on your journey to its same end. Tempus fugit, brother. Benjamin is fated to live his life in reverse, from
UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT
n
od Kitch o w y l l e o B
Genuine Authentic Indian Restaurant North Indian Cuisine at its best! All dishes made to your preference (mild, medium or hot) by experienced Award winning chef Mr Khokhar. COMPLIMENTARY SAFFRON RICE with every curry. BYO Open 5pm-late (closed Sunday) Woolies South Shopping Plaza (behind Byron Cinemas)
6/108 Jonson St, Byron Bay 6680 7718 www.bollywoodkitchen.com.au
FULLY AIR-CONDITIONED EVERY WED ALL SEATS ALL SESSIONS $8 ONLY
ADMISSION PRICES Adults $11 Students/Conc. $9 Children $8
senility to infancy. His mother dies in childbirth, his father abandons him at an old people’s nursing home and Queenie, a coloured employee there, finds him and raises him as her son. His soul mate will be Daisy, whom he meets when she is just a child and he a wizened codger, and the story is told in flashbacks from her deathbed, through the pages of Benjamin’s diary. We’re all familiar with the voice-over reading us into the period being charted, but here the device somehow prevents you from being in the present with Benjamin. This detachment is compounded by a performance from Brad Pitt that relies too heavily on his natural charm and beauty (even as a septuagenarian he’s cute), Cate Blanchett’s peculiar unsuitability as a romantic lead and the episodic format. There is stunted Benjamin having a hoot, Lautrec like, in the bordellos of New Orleans, Benjamin going to sea on the tugboat Chelsea (whose cheroot-chewing captain speaks with an incomprehensible Irish brogue), Benjamin being seduced by the English lady when in Europe (an inordinately long segment of little consequence) and (for the Henson/Lolita hanging judges) the elderly Benjamin getting into mischief under the bed with pubescent Daisy. The chronology is registered in Benjamin’s changing physicality – his arrival at the point where he is once again the golden boy picked up hitchhiking by Thelma and Louse is hurtfully nostalgic for anybody of a certain age – but at no time is his psychological state explored. Next to nothing is learnt of his inner world, he being the same Benjamin throughout, veiling his selfawareness as if he were outside of himself, bemused and helpless. Comparisons with ‘Forrest Gump’ are unavoidable, it also coming from the pen of screenwriter Eric Roth. Benjamin rises from his wheelchair to walk just as triumphantly as Forrest bursts out of his callipers, but the comparisons are most valid at the doling out of the movie’s great lesson; instead of Forrest’s irritating mantra that
MBUFTU!JO!EJHJUBM!TVSSPVOE!TPVOE
BALLINA FAIR CINEMAS
★
LATEST IN HI-TECH MOVIE PRESENTATION Cr Kerr & Fox Streets ADMINISTRATION:
Ph. 6686 9600 MOVIELINE:
Ph. 6686 9091 WEBSITES:
THURS 8TH TO WED 14TH JANUARY
ballina.info/cinema yourmovies.com.au
★ EVERY WEDNESDAY ALL SEATS ALL SESSIONS $8 ONLY ★ ATM NOW AVAILABLE ★ THURS 8 TO WED 14 ★1.20pm ★7.10pm ★9.20pm
THURS 8 TO WED 14 ★2.15pm ★5.15pm ★9.30pm
WILL SMITH in
7 POUNDS YES MAN ADAM SANDLER THURS 8 TO WED 14 ★9.45am ★3.30pm ★7.50pm
BEDTIME STORIES
MADAGASCAR 2 ESCAPE TO AFRICA THURS 8 TO WED 14 ★9.30am ★11.35am ★4.10pm
THURS 8 TO WED 14 ★9.35am ★1.05pm ★5.45pm
BOLT KEANU REEVES FINAL 7 DAYS
THURS 8 TO WED 14 ★9.40pm
THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL
MARLEY & ME THURS 8 TO WED 14 ★11.05am ★2.50pm ★7.30pm
THURS 8 TO WED 14 ★11.20am ★4.50pm FINAL 7 DAYS
AUSTRALIA
★ STARTS NEXT THURSDAY ★ BRIDE WARS ★ ROLE MODELS ★
www.echo.net.au
‘life is like a box of chocolates…’, we get the whimsical homily of ‘some people were born to …’ Cheese-as-Wisdom is a Hollywood staple, but you fear that director David Fincher has worked against himself in an attempt to be profound. Enchanting but syrupy. ~ John Campbell
a muscle of his face, a delivery style that had me periodically nodding off, only to be wrenched from sleep’s sweet embrace by some explosion or other. And that’s another thing – though the movie was no louder than any other of its type, at about the point where the military is foolishly attempting to disable the giant statue that is boss of the UFO (will those army blokes never learn when they are on a hiding to nothing?), the soundtrack hit a subliminal pitch that caused my ears to ring in
a way that they haven’t since I saw Led Zeppelin at Olympia in the dim mists. John Cleese has wrangled prominent billing as a big star in the credits, but the Minister for Silly Walks appears for only five minutes, pretending to be a genius Nobel laureate who listens to Bach and hits it off with Keanu as they resolve some hitherto unfathomable equation. Why the little black kid who looks destined to grow up to be Andrew Symonds is involved is a mystery. A mish-mash of a dozen similar flicks, it most resembles a souped-up Doctor Who, without the great theme music. That is, pretty hopeless. ~ John Campbell
The Day The Earth Stood Still Some folks, deep down, are content in the knowledge that, no matter what, Earth will keep turning and supporting life. Angst that it won’t cater to our species is not worth a hill of beans. Are conservation and evolution mutually exclusive concepts? Whatever – if the Australian cricket team can fall then so most certainly can homo sapiens [sic]. Keanu Reeves arrives from outer space on a mission to eradicate human beings – ‘if you die, the planet survives.’ A fair call, you’d think, but he hasn’t taken into account the persuasive nature of our gentler sex. Jennifer Connelly is a lecturer in biological sciences at Princeton University. Her expertise is enlisted by top secret US brass to help counter the threat posed by Keanu and the billions of rapacious, selfreplicating metallic insects that will be unleashed from within the shimmering orb that has lobbed in Central Park. (Where else could it possibly land?) It would have made a nice change if the part of the academic responsible for humanity’s fate had gone to a frumpy old boiler and not a svelte young beauty, but that would not have allowed for the weird alien to become sympathetic to her cause. Keanu talks in a slow monotone and, remarkably, manages to never move
Happy Holidays!
MOVIE LINE 6680 8555 108 Jonson St, Byron Bay, next to Woolworths www. dendy.com.au
8,) ,31) 3* 59%0-8= '-2)1%
Byron Cinemas STATE OF THE ART DIGITAL SOUND, LUXURY SEATING
THURS JAN 8 ~ WED JAN 14 TUESDAYS ALL TIX $7.50 WILL SMITH ROSARIO DAWSON WOODY HARRELSON
From the makers of The Pursuit of Happyness “unabashedly emotional ... the feel-good movie for these feel-bad times” USA Today
DAILY THURSWED: 9.45AM, 2.20PM, 7PM, 9.15PM
BRAD PITT CATE BLANCHETT “a beautifully made film ... sublime performances” Urban Cinefile “A majestic piece of filmmaking ... a fulfilling and grandiose journey” FilmInk 5 x Golden Globe nominee DAILY THURS-WED: including Best Picture 12PM, 3PM, 6PM, 9PM
JOHN TRAVOLTA
MILEY CYRUS DAILY EXC TUES: 9.30AM, 11.15AM, 1PM TUES: 9.45AM, 11.30AM, 1.15PM “perfect holiday movie” The Age “winning animated adventure” SMH “frisky, funny and inventive” New York Times
KEANU REEVES JENNIFER CONNELLY JADEN SMITH JOHN CLEESE
10TH JANUARY AT THE MOVIES - FEDERAL HALL
Heavenly Creatures 1994. Directed by Peter Jackson Rating: M ‘... Not all angels are innocent...’ The true story of a crime that shocked a nation... Note: No meals will be provided, but coffee and cakes will be served at intermission. Doors open 7pm. Film starts 8pm BYO. Bring a cushion. Enquiries 6684 9313.
“miraculous sci-fi effects” UK Times “real tension ... a strange sense of plausibility” Empire
DAILY EXC TUES: 2.50PM, 5PM, 9.30PM TUES: 3PM, 5PM, 9.30PM
5 x Golden Globe nominee inc Best Picture “Four star political thriller ... one of the best and most surprising movies of the year” Paul Byrnes, SMH **** “Mesmerising performances” Sunday Age
DAILY THURS-WED: 12PM, 4.40PM, 7.10PM
KRISTEN STEWART
ROBERT PATTINSON
WHEN YOU CAN LIVE FOREVER WHAT DO YOU LIVE FOR? “totally fascinating ... a very romantic, very elegant film” David Stratton, At The Movies “an utterly bewitching film “ Urban Cinefile DAILY THURS-WED: 9.45AM
COMING SOON: VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA (M), SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE (MA15+), MILK (M) 797,- 13:-) ()%0 7II ER] ´ PQ ERH VIGIMZI SJJ EX 3 7YWLM 36 WTIRH SV SZIV EX 3 7YWLM ERH WII ER] ´ PQ JSV NYWX GSR 'SRHMXMSRW ETTP]
The Byron Shire Echo January 6, 2009 33