EDGY BY Hollywood STANDARDS, TOUCHING, YET...(may contain spoilers)

Rating: 7/10 (30 December 2008)

I'm conflicted on this one. Though I cried more than I usually do - I haven't sobbed so much since MOULIN ROUGE - it was still kind of lacking, and hokey in its attempt to inspire a FORREST GUMP kind of love in its audience - there was even an omnipresent hummingbird as pretentiously symbolic as Forrest's feather. Benjamin's mama is even a font of Southern wisdom, not going so far as to compare life to a box of chocolates ("you never know what you're gonna get"); her shtick is that you never know what's comin'.
(PS: it didn't even click with me when reading the credits that it was written by the screenwriter of FORREST GUMP; I only just now discovered that on the IMDb, so my comparison is pure and I was in no way prejudiced.)
Yes, there were some universal truths, for which I'm a gigantic sucker: it's never too late to be who you might have been, and you're only "perfect" in your life during a very brief window. Not enough of us appreciate that, and that youth is wasted on the young. There were some colorful characters with stories to tell. But too often director David Fincher (who brought us SEVEN and ZODIAC!) seemed to be channeling P.T. Anderson MAGNOLIA-style. Lofty Capra aspirations creep to mind as well.
Then there was the off-putting narration, too reminiscent of FRIED GREEN TOMATOES, jarring with its abrupt cuts from lyrical scenes of life as lifted from a diary's pages to the present day where Hurricane Katrina whips around outside a dying old woman's New Orleans hospital room. It's a confusing juxtaposition with no metaphorical raison d'etre. It makes even less sense considering this is based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Poetic license aside, the narration comes across as a lazy editorial decision that consistently interrupted momentum and the insertion of a devastating modern day disaster is arbitrary to say the least.
The make-up and CGI effects are mind-blowing, but serve to overshadow the acting abilities of the two leads. Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett are beautiful to look at, but they never really say or do anything. When Blanchett's Daisy explains how a dancer emotes with their body and they are only as good as the line they project, it's a wonder she didn't see the irony. Here, long looks are meant to replace any real emotional connection between their characters. Tilda Swinton actually has the most poignant scene, towards the end.
Out of a possible ten, I give it 8 hankies and 7 toes up.