The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is one of the true treasures of this holiday season. It represents one of the most intelligent and successful attempts to blend technological innovation with powerful, old-fashioned storytelling to create an entirely original and very moving piece of cinema. The movie is not only a complex, provocative meditation on such big ideas as aging, time, love, family, and fate, but also an enjoyable look at an unusual and likable man, Benjamin Button, and his unique journey though the last 80-odd years of history.

The film actually begins in a hospital room in 2005, where a dying mother and her daughter are sharing some final moments. In time, the mother asks her daughter to read a mysterious diary she has been holding onto, which turns out to be the story of Benjamin Button, told in his own words. As the daughter begins to read, we flash back to the “unusual circumstances” of Benjamin’s birth--he was born with the body of an old man, and his body will get progressively younger as his age increases. Thus, the stage is set for this man’s unique experience and perspective as he moves through the world.

Benjamin’s father, a wealthy, white New Orleans button manufacturer, abandons this strange creature (Benjamin’s mother dies during childbirth), and Benjamin is raised by Queenie (played by the wonderful Taraji P. Henson), the ever-kind and loving proprietor of a local boarding house. It is here that Benjamin begins his adventures, meeting people from all walks of life who teach this curious little man about music, love, life, and death, and the cruelties and joys of the world. It is in the boarding house that he also meets Daisy, the woman who will be the defining light and love of his life. When they meet, she is only seven and Benjamin looks over seventy, so their friendship is unusual, but as they grow older (and she turns into Cate Blanchett), their relationship takes on deeper and more romantic dimensions. Early on, it becomes clear that she is the dying woman in the hospital in the film’s 2005 scenes.
As Benjamin grows older (that is, younger), he wants to get out in the world, and he begins a series of adventures that will take him to sea, into war, and through many foreign, exotic places. As the film progresses, it becomes far more than just a travelogue or even one man’s personal journey through life—the film also says a great deal about such topics as the fleetingness of time, the significance of memory, and the difficulties and contradictions of aging.

The script is by Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, Munich), which he adapted from a 22-page story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The real triumph of this script is the development of a slight, whimsical story into a work of incredible ambition, scope, and depth. Roth pulls it off, but the director’s job here is even more challenging; David Fincher manages it brilliantly. achieving a lyrical, entertaining, and emotionally rewarding experience. It’s exceedingly rare for a director to be as gifted and innovative as a technician as he is adept and sophisticated as a storyteller, but Fincher here reveals himself to be that rare example. Between this and last year’s Zodiac, he is definitively establishing himself as one of the most talented filmmakers working today.

Brad Pitt gives his best performance to date as Benjamin, full of warmth and wisdom, but also uncertainty, the perfect combination of a real person and a character emblematic of much larger ideas. The supporting cast is strong all around, and the production elements are superb. Claudio Miranda’s beautiful cinematography, Donald Graham Burt’s precise and intricate production design, and Alexandre Desplat’s moody, evocative score help to immerse the audience in this wonderful world for 2 hours and 40 minutes. David Fincher has made a film important to see not only for its technical innovations and achievements, but also for an experience that engages one's eyes, brain, and heart.

                                                               David Laub