Victor Hedman. 2009 World Junior Championship. I served as a Team Lead for Team Services – managing game pucks, ensuring teams had Gatorade, etc.

There’s something inherently wrong about turning a short story into a nearly 3-hour feature length film. Such an adaptation, if faithful to its limited source material, is bound to struggle against tedium, and this is where ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button‘ fails.

This type of story – sharing the basic premise of recounting one’s life with films such as ‘Big Fish‘ and ‘Forrest Gump‘ – needs to survive on its characters and their charm. The story in this case is quite linear, and so simply shuffles off to another adventure as soon as we feel we are getting to know any of those appearing on screen. If these are individuals that are to have made an impact on the story’s protagonist, they should equally make an impact on those of us watching the story unfold.

Yes, the film has its charming moments, it has scenes that might draw a few tears, but ultimately it feels slow and uneventful – a symptom of trying to do too much with story arcs.

A film like this might be saved by the acting, but even here things disappoint. While Tilda Swinton is fabulous, Cate Blanchett still seems to be channeling her over-the-top role from ‘The Aviator‘ and Brad Pitt doesn’t seem to know what to do with the role once he grows out of old age.

Watchable? Yes. What the film does with special effects to make Pitt appear seamlessly older than his years in the early stages is incredible. Deserving of 13 Academy Award nominations? Only in a lackluster year for film.

C

Fetisov, with Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin. AP Photo.

Slava Fetisov, 20 November 2000, in the Toronto Star, discussing the Russian Hockey Federation and the prospect of coaching the Russian Olympic hockey team: “I think every time they hear my name, they get scared that I’m going to come back there and take over hockey.”

Here’s what followed:

09/02/2001
Expresses his displeasure with the Federation and his desire to coach the team.

21/08/2001
Appointed head coach of the Russian Olympic hockey team with help from Vladimir Putin.

06/03/2002
Demands an overhaul of the Russian player development system.

29/04/2002
Fetisov named chairman of the State Committee for Physical Culture and Sports.

27/07/2002
Creates a public organization to tackle the development of sports infrastructure.

08/08/2003
Suggests Russian ownership of an NHL franchise.

07/02/2008
On the soon-to-be-formed KHL: “We’ll definitely be a serious contender to the NHL.”

02/03/2008
“We must protect our clubs from the NHL…We will be No. 1 regardless. We have everything for this: talented people, government support, money, desire and great traditions.”

From Assistant Coach of the New Jersey Devils to Putin’s right-hand man responsible for the country’s sports infrastructure (which would include Sochi 2014) and the government’s point man for Russian hockey… I would say that the RHF’s fears were well founded.

Apparently he also has an asteroid named after him.