Here's what I can say:

Rating: 7/10 (22 January 2009)

I enjoyed this film quite a lot, but I have a lot of complaints. I felt the beginning was top notch, interesting, and made me think the whole film was going to be great. However, the film slowly eased off and got progressively worse as it went on. I noticed this when the person I was sitting next to (who originally looked quite engaged) was asleep. One of the strengths of the beginning was the amount of fantastic characters with interesting stories. As the film went on, the minor characters slowly disappeared, until all that remained were the two leads. At the end of the film it shows all of the characters, and NONE of them were introduced after the second half, they were all from the beginning. That was a clear sign of weakness. The second half seemed to be more of a quick explanation on what happened to Benjamin. It was frustrating that the second half was quick and didn't do anything more, and after choosing to go to a long film, you would expect for a good finish. But it wasn't. Another part of the film I thought that weakened it was the lack of purpose. No real message was gotten out of the film. Nothing to leave you with. It was a pretty simple story, and it was entertaining, but moving - no way. And for a heavy Oscar favorite, I would expect a bit better. Not to mention it's insane similarity to Forrest Gump, but that's another story.
A generous 7/10