One of the best narration based film I have seen

Rating: 9/10 (15 April 2009)

There are movies which would make you laugh. There are movies which would make you cry. There are also movies, which would inspire, there are some which would raise your hidden romanticism for a while. But there are certain movies, which, however hard one tries to qualify, would feel that the effort keeps falling short of what it deserves and makes you feel that if you hadn't watched it, your life would be a failure. I had a few such movies in my personal and recommended list, Shawshank Redemption, Forrest Gump, Crash and others. After watching this movie, I had no doubt that the list is going to be increased by a unit.
One of the key strong points, I felt about this movie, is the way it has been narrated. Shawshank Redemption was one such movie, which had produced such brilliant narration skills. Certain events were shown in the film, and along with that via narration analogies were drawn and often conclusions were derived, an add-on feature that enriched those particular sequence of events and makes you remember them for a long time. This combination of scene and narration was observed on several occasions in the course of the movie. One such occasion was the description of the accident of Daisy Williams ( Cate Blanchett) which describes a full sequence of events leading to the outcome. Another was the narration that followed when Benjamin carried his dying father to the porch to see the the rising sun. I feel that after this film, Brad Pitt has joined the group of elite actor narrators of the Hollywood industry which includes Morgan Freeman, Robin Williams and Tom Hanks.
A very unique aspect of the film is that, it moves along according to a description as provided in a diary written by one person, but often that is intersected by a few comments or description of another person who is an important subject of the description provided by the first. While Daisy was being read to by her daughter, the event in which Benjamin had come all the way to France to meet her in hospital, Daisy throws her own comments saying that she was very rude to him; the scene continues where her daughter reads from the diary that Benjamin didn't immediately fly back, but used to visit the hospital without informing Daisy, hearing which Daisy said that she didn't know that fact. So, as it could be seen, Daisy, an important subject of the contents of the diary, adds values to the main theme of the movie by providing certain information not present in the diary, simultaneously realizing certain facts she didn't quite know earlier.
The movie begins with a short event description by Daisy, about a clock, that was made by a person, a clock where the time moves backwards. This becomes the central theme of the entire movie. The movie ends showing how one fine day, that clock got replaced signifying that the story about the subject who was born old and died young has finally come to an end. The powerful and unique script of this movie, the very concept of age decreasing with time is of its own an enigmatic one. One of the many reasons, a film is liked by the audience is that they wish to see something new out of it, something that is quite unique, intriguing, something they have never seen before and keeps them riveted to the seat. The movie with its core concept of age reversal with time provides the audience with that exact recipe, it's taste enhanced with the spice of brilliant narration, dialogs and a better as usual performance by two most talented actors in Hollywood. One point however, in the movie, which might steal a few points from its credit is the pace or movement of its event sequences. At times it did appear that the movie is actually going slow, and that it's duration should have been lesser by 20-25 mins. Also the effect of the storm, didn't actually add to any significance of any kind and was something vestigial.
I would suggest people watch this movie at least twice in order to extract the complete effect it has to offer. Such films happen after long time, and eventually does turn into a classic because it touches the human heart, goes deep inside it and brings out the emotions thereby making the audience feel for it, remember it and make them think that in a busy life, a two hour forty min was not wasted.