Just another life-in-the-20th-century film with a twist that doesn't work

Rating: 5/10 (6 January 2009)

This film is basically the narration of the life of a person through the 20th century (WW2, swinging 60s, etc), but even on that premise it completely bypasses many of the big events and there's little other story or character interaction to make up for it. The main twist is that Benjamin Button lives his life in reverse (though time still moves forwards), being born as an old man and growing younger as time goes on.
The film is okay, but not great. It didn't grip me and after a couple of hours I was waiting for it to finish. It's broken into segments of Benjamin's life without much overlap between them. Almost exactly the same story could have been told in a more interesting way with the main protagonist being a normal person (life moving forwards) who had a few problems in keeping relationships with people. That's essentially what it seemed to be, with very few characters lasting the length of his life and interacting with his condition realistically at the same time. The strength of this film is the acting and the cinematography, but the weakness is its screenplay.
There's huge scope to explore the life of someone ageing in reverse, but the screenplay doesn't expend much effort to do so. The main characters throughout the film recognise that Benjamin is ageing in reverse, but simply accept it without questioning how or why it happens, or becoming obviously concerned about the implications or unknowns. It's as if they all just got up and thought "Hey, that guy's ageing backwards -- that sucks" and then went on with their lives without wondering about it in any detail.
There's very little exploration about what lengths someone might need to go to to fit into society without such a problem actually being noticed, such as getting a passport or any other kind of public record, escaping being drafted for Vietnam (for which he must have been a prime candidate), or just living below the radar of those who might want to learn more about his condition. The closest the story comes to investigating implications is with a brief sub-plot about (not) raising a family, which is a shallow addendum stapled to the end.
A vague effort is made to connect Benjamin's life to the life of a clock in a railway station that was built by its depressed maker to run backwards, but for me it didn't work at all. A short story about the creation of the clock is given at the start, an announcement that the clock has been dismantled is made at the end, but throughout the whole movie -- including at Benjamin's birth and death -- no plausible reason is given to believe that there's any connection between the clock and his life. Did the producers just throw this bit into the script at the last minute because they thought it'd seem cool? It felt superfluous to the film and I thought it should have been either cut, or properly intertwined with the rest of the story so it would actually be meaningful.