Am I the only one who hated this movie?

Rating: 2/10 (2 January 2009)

I went into this movie with high hopes--it had a high IMDb rating, and a friend had personally recommended it. So when I sat down at the theatre, I expected to enjoy the movie. From the opening scene, however, my expectations were lowered drastically.
Was there any point whatsoever in setting the movie's narration in a New Orleans hospital just before Hurricane Katrina hit? Because it seams as if the filmmakers said, "Oh, this is New Orleans. Let's include Katrina!" and did so without any further reason.
The movie was also exceedingly long--almost 3 hours. Even if I LIKE a movie a great deal, that length is stretching my patience. The story would have been a great deal tighter and more interesting if they hadn't attempted to cram every tiny detail of Benjamin's life in--or even if they had decreased the returns to the narrator by a few. As it is, the story was almost lost in the filmmakers' need to include every tiny detail--and increasingly irrelevant ones, at that.
One thing I cannot fault is the acting, and that is why this review is given 2 stars instead of only 1. All the actors (and there are a LOT of them) were superb. Brad Pitt in the titular role was particularly good--hearing the character mature as his body became younger was particularly disturbing.
Overall, I would not recommend anyone to see this movie unless you have a taste for incomprehensible, overly-long movies with little discernible plot.