Like Forrest Gump without the wit or charm

Rating: 6/10 (17 November 2019)

The most irritating part of Benjamin Button is that it has this strange premise (aging backward) and doesn't take advantage of it. The Fitzgerald short story actually shows Benjamin going through life stages backward (from cranky old geezer to mild-mannered husband to young virile asshole; it's actually pretty funny and interesting) whereas the movie merely shows this dull blank slate of a character aging backwards biologically with this soporific love story thrown into it. Like he starts off as this little old man, but he just comes across like a soft-spoken kid with a bad skin disease (I get that it was trying to go for that 'second childhood' phase but I felt like it chickened out, like why not start out asa cranky old geezer). The movie was too afraid to be weird and interesting, instead vying for safer Hollywood schmaltz. It was all just so incredibly bland.