The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Entertainment film in its highest form should present you with a story or aspect of a story that compels you to totally commit, unconditionally indulge, or consciously tolerate its plot, even in the face of something unexpected, unlikely or virtually impossible. In comes The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, the time-metaphoric tale of a male born with the physical characteristics of a very old man - plagued with cataracts, wrinkled skin, fragile bones and a slew of other chronic ailments - who ages in reverse, becoming more youthful with each tick of the clock. He is deserted at birth, rescued by a stranger who is accustomed to caring for the aged, but who recognizes that what the infant needs most is love; the baby boy, ironically, in his innocence, presents her with an opportunity to nurture in the reverse care-giving manner than her daily routine running a home for the elderly requires. Button has a sequence of encounters and experiences as he grows progressively younger, maintaining a physical, psychological and cyclical anchor at the home of his adopted mother. Borrowing ever so loosely from the basic premise of the 25-page 1922 short story of the same title by F. Scott Fitzgerald, this rendition by Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, The Insider) and Robin Swicord veers from many specifics of the original storyline but maintains its rootedness in the mysterious nature of Benjamin Button's life as a means to addressing conflicting attitudes surrounding the fact of aging and our ambivalence about concepts of time.

Brad Pitt delivers his best performance to date as Button - the quiet, confused man who walks the thinnest of lines between a resolved situation and life as a victim. And while the make-up and computer magic are unquestionably part of the cast in this film, Pitt wears these masks well, delivering just the right amount of reserve, cautiousness and passivity where applicable and enough hints of initiative and emotion when necessary. He is superbly supported by Taraji Henson as Queenie, the woman who raises him. Pitt and Henson should make the coveted short list from members of the Academy - Henson should walk with a statue. Jared Harris as Captain Mike, the tattooed seaman who befriends him, Tilda Swinton as Elizabeth Abbott, the woman who seduces him, and Elle Fanning (yes, Dakota's younger sister hits the mark here) who plays young Daisy - the love of his life also deliver strong performances. Cate Blanchett, however, has done stronger work. Her portrayal of Daisy grown up is credible, and occasionally comes across as just awkward enough to add another edge (even if unplanned) to an already unusual production, but it falls short of memorable, even moreso in light of Henson's and Swinton's great work in this project.

Director David Fincher (Se7en, Zodiac, Fight Club) seems to have an affinity for time-mazed fantasies and should pull an Oscar nomination as well. While he intrigues us to the point of at least hanging with the idea of Button's delimma, and gently prods us into gradually caring a bit about the character, he wisely avoids overt sentimentalism, laces the film with humor, and makes the love story one of its layers, not the force that truly drives the film - that aspect, for me, is all contained in the uniqueness, mysteriousness, and involuntary oneness of Button.

This may be a difficult film for some to follow (and swallow). It raises a lot of what-ifs and imagine this. Concepts of then and now, past and present merge in call and response-like scenarios facilitated by flashbacks, the voice of a diary reader, the recollection of an aging Daisy, the impending threat of Hurricane Katrina, the counterclockwise ticking of a large clock, the coloration of the images, silence, noise, water, travel, and Button's perspective. There is an understated attentiveness to the very status of being severely different, awkward, and yet human; of being embraced and accepted in one's own unsualness as opposed to being patronized and tolerated. Given a chance - one this film clearly deserves - the movie provides food for serious thought.

If you watch the film instead of your cell phone clock - a distraction and a nuisance to everyone seated nearby - you really do not feel its 2 hour 47 minutes. And after all, whom among us has not stated or thought, "if I could turn back the hands of time"?...



Grade: A-
Amalia