Not worthy of the rights to Fitzgerald's short story

Rating: 1/10 (19 July 2010)

This film has the audacity to claim that it is based on the short story "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" by the incomparable F. Scott Fitzgerald (published in 1922) who credits Mark Twain and Samuel Butler for the philosophical idea that 'it's a pity that the best part of life came at the beginning and the worst part at the end'.
This film version of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" did not retain any of the cogitative ideas presented in the book when a man ages backwards. So when watching, there is no deep thought-provoking concepts explored, and nothing to engage you in a philosophical exploration of life. I'm guessing that the only thing of value is supposed to be that part of the film has Brad Pitt looking not attractive. That is as far as Hollywood can take a good book.
Clearly the film does have high production values and they may have done a lot of good things, but they lost their right to be judged fairly as a film once they bought the rights to Fitzgerald's story. Now nobody will even have a chance to see this great story brought to visual life, and that is a travesty.
Please go to your local public library and borrow a copy of "Tales of the Jazz Age", you will be able to read the short story and get so much more out of it than the film and in less time and money.