Time is quickly passing you by, watch this wonderful film!

Rating: Null/10 (12 September 2011)

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a 2008 film directed by David Fincher that is loosely based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It tells the story of a man who is born old, then spends the rest of his life aging backwards. His life is not measured in minutes, but by the moments spent in life. The story begins in 2005 with Daisy (Cate Blanchett) as an elderly woman on her deathbed in a hospital, asking her daughter Caroline (Julia Ormond) to read aloud from a diary. As Caroline begins to read from this diary, the film goes back to 1918, when Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt) is born with the physical appearance of an elderly man. His mother dies shortly after childbirth and Benjamin's father, Thomas Button (Jason Flemyng), decides to immediately abandon him on the front porch of a New Orleans nursing home. One of the nursing home workers, Queenie (Taraji P. Henson) finds the baby and decides to raise him as her own. As Benjamin starts to grow up, the movie allows us to view his life from the days spent in the retirement home as a child, to a sordid love affair in a hotel in Russia, with different adventures in New York, Paris, and India all along the way. As Benjamin grows younger and healthier, his mind grows older and wiser. Benjamin eventually grows young and dies in 2003 as an infant in Daisy's arms. With his entire history, including his true love for Daisy, now told through this diary, Daisy slowly slips away to the fate that inevitably awaits us all.
As sad as this movie is, it is a wonderful film that shows us the importance of loyalty towards family and friends, loving each other no matter the circumstances, and always appreciating what you have and are given in life. The film has some similarities to Forest Gump, but it is a little less goofy and has a much more sincere and endearing quality to it. Both films have that element of sentiment primarily stemming from both of their peculiar lead characters, both born with afflictions, following them through their lives as they both go through peculiar situations, and dealing with peculiar people along the way. Both Pitt and Blanchett do a great job in this film, but it is the supporting cast that really wins you over. Queenie in particular does an amazing job of providing love, joy, and humor that is second to none and allows you to immediately identify with her character. Pitt was also amazing as he portrayed a young, curious, and innocent soul in an old man's body, as well as when he portrays an older, wiser soul, in a much younger looking body.
There was a general motif of time throughout this entire film that was pretty obvious. There are multiple scenes in which a clock is shown, including at the end of the movie, just as an infant Benjamin dies, when an old clock is quickly shown reversing in time. In addition, the cinematography and lighting of this film are both absolutely amazing. There is an old fashioned approach that is used throughout this film to give it that Hollywood epic feel, however, as time progresses and Benjamin begins to get visibly younger, a different style of film and lighting is clearly used to give each scene a fresh and vibrant look, which is able to compliment the amazing makeup job used to make Pitt look just as he did in his 1991 movie Thelma and Louise.
Considering we are not getting any younger, take time to enjoy this wonderful and heartwarming film, it will not only make you appreciate your life a little more, but will also make you wish you could stop the clock and make it last forever.