A story inspired by F. Scott Fitzgerald's story.

Rating: 7/10 (8 May 2009)

Let's get the bad stuff out of the way first. One, the movie WAS too long and a good 30 minutes could have been lopped off easily. Second, if you are going to use actual places, events, and people then make sure the history is correct. Third, and I am experiencing this more and more with movies, there is too much mumbling going on, background noise (music, general noise) that blocks out dialogue, and some scenes are so dark you cannot tell what the hooey is going on. Works with horror flicks (the darkness), but not with something like this movie. And fourth, asking an audience to ignore the fact that the characters in the movie do not make any sort of Big Deal out of the fact that this man was getting younger goes well past what one should expect from an audience, as well as the script. This was the dawn of a new age, and advances in medicine and all that. Wasn't anyone curious? Now on to the good stuff. Thank goodness the makers of this movie did not follow Fitzgerald's actual story, as that story was quite stupid (IMO). Visually, other than when I could not see what was going on, this movie was a treat for the eyes. The music was perfect for what was going on. Blanchett carried the movie (though, when her character was a dying old woman in the hospital with her daughter I could not understand a lot of what she was saying), as we all expected, and what little we saw of Swinton was well worth the wait. Even Pitt was okay, and I am far from a fan of his. I do not understand how some people did not get the link with the clock. Think of this story as a fantasy, and it all works. I'd love to talk more about the link between BB's birth (and death) and the clock, but go and watch the movie and figure it out for yourself.