"Your life is defined by its opportunities... even the ones you miss"

Rating: 7/10 (13 January 2009)

Mankind has always been fascinated by his own mortality. Death has been a prevailing motif in art throughout the centuries, most of the contributing artists and authors now deceased, having been outlived by the work borne from their passions and uncertainties. Author F. Scott Fitzgerald died prematurely in 1940. There will come a time when director David Fincher passes on (hopefully not for a long time yet), and so 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)' will serve as his own wistful essay on the nature of life and death, love and loss. Fitzgerald's short story was adapted by Eric Roth, who also wrote 'Forrest Gump (1994)' {itself inspired by the likes of 'Little Big Man (1970)' and 'Being There (1979)'}, and so comparisons between the two films are certainly not unfounded. Both films  and I love 'Forrest Gump,' by the way  trace the lives of sympathetic characters who are forced to experience the world through unusual circumstances, thus giving them a unique outlook on life. Also brought to mind is Tim Burton's 'Big Fish (2003),' particularly with its elements of fantasy.
Though almost three hours in length, every shot of Fincher's film is a sumptuous feast for the eyes, with computer-generated imagery integrated seamlessly into the plot, enhancing the fantastical atmosphere rather than distracting from it. Extensive make-up is used to add decades to many of the supporting characters, but what I found even more astonishing was the visual trickery used to "age down" star Brad Pitt to a striking youth in his twenties. The effect is marvellously disconcerting, and really drives home the sheer eeriness of Benjamin Button's circumstances. The film's somewhat-gimmicky premise is played surprisingly lightly during the film's first half, but gradually transforms into a melancholy tragedy when Benjamin begins to comprehend that his current "normal" lifestyle is only temporary. There's little emotional pay-off to the film, perhaps because the protagonist is himself incapable of finding any lasting satisfaction. Though we follow Benjamin's years to their logical conclusion, there's disappointingly little pathos in his final moments; as soon as Brad Pitt is removed from the equation, the audience loses its emotional anchor with the character.
Despite its inconsistent tone and occasionally lazy storytelling, 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' is probably Fincher's most mature film to date, certainly more so than the highly enjoyable but superficial 'Se7en (1995)' and 'Fight Club (1999),' though 'Zodiac (2007)' first signalled the arrival of an intelligent filmmaker. For viewers in search of action-packed thrills, they'd best look elsewhere, for 'Benjamin Button' is a film in which nothing much happens. This remark is obviously hyperbole, but I don't mean it as a criticism; the film is a subtle and elegiac meditation on human mortality, and it basks for 166 minutes in this simple but powerful premise. For Benjamin Button, we can't sit back and muse, as we might for Forrest Gump or Edward Bloom, "this man has had a great life." When it comes down to it, exactly what has Benjamin done with his life? He's just lived it, and, really, that's all that anyone can expect out of life. Some people were born to sit by a river; some get struck by lightning; some are artists; some swim; some dance. Benjamin Button lived.