Nothing lasts... What a shame...

Rating: 10/10 (31 December 2008)

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is one year's best movies, although it runs a little long. Coming from Director David Fincher ("Seven" and "Fight Club"), the movie is unexpectedly sentimental. Brad Pitt gives perhaps his best performance. Cate Blanchett is awesome, and deserves an Oscar nod. The screenplay by Eric Roth from the story by Robin Swincord and Roth based on the F. Scott Fitzgerald short story is the lyrical allegory of a man who ages backward through his life. "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" feels reminiscent of Pitt's "Meet Joe Black" and "Forrest Gump". This may be intentional. I am guessing that the original F. Scott Fitzgerald story may have been darker.
Fincher envisions "Benjamin Button" as a poignant parable of change in life, and life being whole and complete. The old woman, who teaches Benjamin to play piano, tells him, "Everyone you love will eventually die" I think Fincher and Roth tell a story of legacy, mortality, and love. Effectively told from retrospective narrative, the story follows the life of Benjamin (Pitt), who is born an old man, and grows physically younger as he ages through his life. After giving birth to Benjamin in 1918, his mother dies. His abhorred father Thomas Button (good Jason Flemyng) abandons his son at an elderly care home.
The baby is raised by strong young Black woman Queenie (Taraji P. Henson), who names her son Benjamin. This is an amazing narrative touch, as "old man" baby Benjamin is raised among the elderlyhis people. There Benjamin meets the love of his life Daisy (who eventually grows into Cate Blanchett) when she is 7 years old. Here Fincher and Roth display a delicate touch. Benjamin and Daisy's fostering relationship is endearing and awkward, when it could easily have been a little creepy. At 17 years old Benjamin decides to leave home and sail the seas with tugboat skipper Captain Mike (larger than life Jarred Harris). All the while Benjamin writes to Daisy as he promised. Daisy grows up into a beautiful free-spirited ballerina.
Eventually, their lives collide somewhere in the middle. In a moving scene together Benjamin confesses to Daisy, "I was thinking how nothing lasts, and what a shame that is." And we watch as Benjamin and Daisy deal with their fate and the inevitable. Along the way, life happens. Henson is so strong as Queenie, who loves Benjamin as her blood. There is such a moving moment at Benjamin's father's funeral. Queenie holding Benjamin's arm tells him that his father will be buried next to his mother. Pitt quietly says, "You're my mother." "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is about the fleetness of life and mortality, but is also about family and love spanning the generations. Along that line Julia Ormond is amazingly poignant as Daisy's daughter Caroline, who discovers her mother's amazing life. Tilda Swinton is also riveting as Elizabeth, the other great love of Benjamin's life.
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is so moving, because of the powerful performances from Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. Brad gives his best performance. He brilliantly balances the wonder and pain of a man fated to live his life backward. His chemistry with Blanchett is authentically moving and touching. Pitt and Blanchett make us believe that Benjamin and Daisy are soul mates. Blanchett is amazing, and deserves an Oscar nod. Although she plays the normal Daisy, who grows old like the rest of us, she emanates a deep compassion and humanity that is so moving. She is great with Pitt as their love story blossoms in the middle. Blanchett is powerful in her compassion and silence in the moments near the end.
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" celebrates life, unexpected and always a wonder. David Fincher maintains a sense of humor, and tells a touching and inspiring tale with an edge. Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett are amazing and powerful. See "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button".