Brad Pitt's performance here cannot be mentioned without mentioning all of the special effects in the various scenes of the film. It is many times difficult to tell how much of the actual character is Pitt in these early scenes, which even seems to include the face partially at times. The one thing that seems to Pitt's own most of the time seems to just be his voice, except for of course at the very end of the film.
I think a major problem, one of the major problems with this performance, is that much of it is special effects, or makeup. Pitt's I never felt really did all that much to do all that much himself to indicate the age as well as deaging of the character. Pitt' always seems to just let the special effects handle most every thing, and I geuss he alters his voice a little bit but not all too much, or all that interestingly.
Another problem comes from the fact that Pitt's portrays his part in an extremely uninteresting fashion. He has a distinct lack of charm in the role, and he again seems to want the special effects to do everything, including in trying to make him an interesting character. Pitt is just deadly dull because he does this, perhaps one could say well the special effects were hindering, I say no, watch John Hurt in The Elephant Man to see a performance, that technically could have been hindered by makeup but never for single moment was.
Pitt's whole performance shows what makes other performances good actually, because when there is a close up to Pitt's face, what does one see nothing. He shows absolutely no reflection on the character's life, or frankly much of a realization that his character is even aging backwards. Pitt always keeps the part at this same level of passiveness, that is quite boring to watch.
Pitt in fact does try to give a performance similar to that of Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump. He tries to be a likable guy to follow through his adventures, and misadventures through time. Although I believe this to be a faulty way in portraying a character that seems like he should have deeper reflection, even though he never does. Still as even trying to be like Hanks he fails, because Hanks still was able to be likable and carrying his film, Pitt never does this, making the story of Benjamin Button, quite a dull one.
