An interesting concept, but ultimately leaves us with too many meaningless details

Rating: 5/10 (3 January 2009)

(THIS CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!) Like a lot of people I saw the trailer for this movie and became intrigued with the idea of a person aging backwards. Then after it ended up on a lot of critics' top 10 lists and getting a lot of Golden Globe Nominations I decided to go see it. It was an OK movie, but only just OK. Satisfactory, mediocre, nothing special. I expected a lot better from all the buzz, and the strange thing was it felt like there were a lot of different things that were supposed to be set-ups/foreshadowing for later developments and there wasn't any payoff. For example: 1) The approaching hurricane in the hospital scenes. Sure, in the end, we get the return of the hummingbird from earlier (the death of the sea captain during WWII) but wasn't that hummingbird supposed to be more of a symbol of the sea captain. With it appearing outside the hospital window at Daisy's (Cate Blanchett's) death did it symbolize her, Benjamin, the random occurrence of nature/God...? Uh...it didn't make sense or, at least, was clumsily done. Why have a hurricane? Was that really necessary? Isn't having a hummingbird appear out of nowhere to say "Hi!" Disney-style outside a window coincidental enough that you don't need F10 winds blowing at the same time? 2) What was up with the guy who got struck by lightening 7 times? Now I laughed every time we got see one of those seven times (by the way I felt gypped out of two of them) and about mid-way through the movie was more interested in when he would pop up again than anything that was happening to Benjamin. I felt like Lightening Guy would be the reason why the hurricane was coming to get Daisy. I felt that somehow those two things were connected, but that didn't happen.
3) Why have the father leave the button factory to Benjamin and then kind of leave it at that. Benjamin never did anything with the factory. Why not? If you're going to start your movie with a fancy shot of the two movie studios that produced the movie done up with buttons, why wasn't it more integral to the plot other providing the protagonists last name. Once again: set-up and no payoff.
4)What was the point of the affair with Tilda Swinton in the Russian hotel? Sure, later on we find out that she fulfills her goal of swimming the English Channel, but it never really affects Benjamin much other than to keep him away from Daisy for awhile. It's not like her abrupt departure is explained or given any profound meaning to Benjamin's life. And when he sees her on television many years later, it doesn't inspire him to achieve some goal he had put off, so...why? But I could keep going (If the blind clockmaker's backwards-running clock caused Benjamin's unique condition, why wasn't anyone else affected? Why Benjamin? Why the last day of WWI? Why'd the black preacher die when Benjamin took his first steps? Why did the nursing home re-open? Why was Daisy living in a nursing home with her Grandmother? Why'd she come back after her Gandmother died? When Benjamin was old, why didn't anyone in the nursing home notice a backwards aging child (aging backwards at old age would be more gradual and none of the residents would notice because they'd be dead before too much change, but at the end of his life Benjamin would have to go through some rapid shrinking in the last five years of his life for anyone not to notice) Overall I'm nitpicking on details, but it felt like at least one of these details would add up to a better payoff or at least more meaning for what turned out to be a very straight-forward story. Most of it felt like the story would have been the same even without the backwards aging. Still it was okay. Cate Blanchett was really good with what she had to work with and I really liked the scene that explained the events leading to her accident. Overall, I'd say see it but go see something better if you can find it. Nothing special here.