Director David Fincher is probably best known for his films "Seven" and "Fight Club." His star in both was Brad Pitt, whose iconic turn as an anticonsumerism terrorist in "Fight Club" was so sensational that it inspired an entire generation of men to go out and by maroon faux-leather jackets.
Fincher and Pitt are reunited again, with high expectations in "The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button," a nearly three-hour-long adaptation of a brisk F. Scott Fitzgerald short story. This should have alarm bells going off already, but let's not mince words here: The only thing "curious" about "Benjamin Button" is how the director of "Fight Club" has managed to make a film this dull and tame and sappy and vanilla.
Maybe Fincher, like the protagonist of "Fight Club," has another personality inside his head that takes over sometimes. That personality would clearly be Frank Darabont ("The Green Mile," "The Majestic"), because Fincher's new film offers the same feeble-minded magic realism as that director: a rich smorgasbord of cheesy life lessons and pasty bromides.