...toc-tic..toc-tic...toc-tic..

Rating: 6/10 (22 February 2009)

The central premise of THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON is that the title protagonist doesn't age, but rather grows steadily younger throughout the film. He is born the size of a newborn, but his body is racked with the ailments of an old man  - arthritis, cataracts, wrinkles, etc. The story follows his seven decades of existence as a backward ride through a forward moving society, until he progresses/regresses and dies as an infant. It is a bizarre and strangely pointless concept, which seemingly would have to carry with it a message about life and living, otherwise, why bother telling it. But for all of its lush storytelling and sometimes strikingly beautiful imagery, BENJAMIN BUTTON is a very long film with nothing of any real relevance to say.
There are several problems here. One, though the film can illustrate his physical change through make up and special effects, it can't  or at least, doesn't  capture the emotional and psychological effects of such a development. To be a child, with all of the expanding wonderment that entails, but to be trapped in a decrepit, aged body, would have to carry with it a remarkable psychological burden. The story, as penned from F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story by Eric Roth, sidesteps this by contriving circumstances wherein young Benjamin is raised in an old folks home. Thus the story gives us a character, who by his very nature is an outsider, but places him in a cocoon during his formative years where his malady is seemingly perfectly natural and accepted. He is an old man raised in an environment of old people. Where is the drama in that? In his middle years, aged twenty to fifty or sixty, his age isn't that important to what he does; and his last years, where he shrinks from a teen to a tot, are rushed through with little concern for their importance.
But the retirement home isn't the only place where the film negates Benjamin's curious condition. The film details his growing younger and the other characters are always noting the change, but no one seems particularly surprised, let alone shocked by it. Though years pass between the times Benjamin sees various characters, there is no questioning that the suddenly younger Benjamin is who he says he is and only the mildest of confusion about the situation. And given the uniqueness of his condition, it would seem that it would be a biological anomaly that would warrant genuine scientific study, perhaps even popular notoriety; but that isn't the case. The story plays out like an unrealistic fairy tale set against a realistic background, yet its only moral seems to be that it is painful to outlive the people you love -- which is true with or without the backward growth gimmick.
For all the purpose it carries, the story could just as easily have abandoned the anti-aging tricks and it wouldn't have had much effect on the events in Benjamin's life; with little change, the same story could have been told had Benjamin aged naturally. Maybe, free of the central gimmick, the film might have been more interesting, or more honest anyway. As is, the film contains little wisdom about the joys and pains of growth and even less about how one's age is reflected in one's environment.
The film's biggest problem however is that Benjamin Button isn't that interesting as a character. At least, not as played by Brad Pitt. The incredibility of the story could be accepted or forgiven if Benjamin was a person worth being concerned about. But there is nothing larger than life about Benjamin; and other than his wartime adventures, there really isn't much that happens in his life that is all that remarkable -- falling in love, losing love, becoming a father, facing the death of loved ones, etc. These everyday joys and tragedies could be powerful if presented as part of the life of a colorful and caring character, but in Pitt's hands, Benjamin is a quiet, polite and even docile person. Pitt gives us a character who is simply rather banal. If the point of the story is that Benjamin's biological oddity is what makes him distant and aloof, then the film does a poor job of making that clear. The most curious aspect of Benjamin Button's existence is that after spending several hours with him, and experiencing all the ups and downs of his life, one is likely to be at a loss to remember him at all.
What makes BENJAMIN BUTTON a curious case is trying to figure why it was even made. Devoid of an intriguing center in Benjamin and wrapped in an elaborate and meaningless gimmick involving his reverse aging, the film is a harmless, if long-winded trifle. BENJAMIN BUTTON is like its protagonist, a pleasant enough acquaintance, but one that will pass through your life with barely a ripple of difference.