Nicely crafted, but ultimately superficial and disappointing

Rating: 5/10 (25 July 2009)

The problem with this movie is its gimmick. It relies on the concept of Benjamin Button's reversed aging to stand out, but yet, throughout the nearly three-hour runtime, this very concept is never explored in any depth. When Benjamin is asked what it's like to grow younger, he gives a bland response about only being inside himself looking out. Likewise, all the people Benjamin encounters seem to immediately adapt a natural acceptance of his condition, calling him "unusual" and leaving it at that, which does little to add to the immersion of the movie. "Oh, so you can fly, breathe underwater and lift locomotives, oh my.. what an unusual boy you are".
In fact, so little effect does this reversed-aging process have, which has undoubtedly become the main attention-gatherer for this film; that you could essentially do away with the entire idea, and it would come out just about the same: a story about a man who is shunned as newborn, grow up under somewhat poor conditions, go out on a see-the-world adventure and returns home and eventually develops dementia and dies.
It's not exactly a poor story, but neither is it very remarkable. An "ordinary extraordinary" life-story, if you will. Forrest Gump did this in a better way already as several reviewers have pointed out. The one thing to make this movie different was the reversed aging, but as said, that issue never really gets any screen time. No one questions its causes, no one contemplates its implications, and even Benjamin himself doesn't really have anything to say about it.
So in the end, the one thing that could have made this movie interesting ends up as a sideshow. It's like going to see a movie about aliens and outer space, and realize it's actually a standard love story that's been done 100 times before, only in an outer space setting that's never really touched upon, with an alien cameo somewhere in the middle.
I guess this was always the intention of the people behind the film, but it just doesn't appeal to me. Have the courage to focus on the parts of your idea that are unique, instead of desperately clinging to the warm, common ground of relationships and love so that everyone can relate to it.