A great story with great feeling

Rating: 8/10 (12 May 2012)

Directed by David Fincher, this movie is based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, published in 1922. I've read the short story, but ignoring it when I review the movie is easy as there is basically no connection between the two. I review the film on its own merits, which are many.
The cast is great: Brad Pitt, Tilda Swinton, Elias Koteas, Cate Blanchett, Taraji P. Henson, and more. The script takes the concept of the short story and goes in completely different directions, taking a path that borders on overly sentimental. Benjamin is born at the end of World War I as an infant who is apparently about seventy years of age, nearly blind from cataracts. As he grows, becomes a toddler, then a pre-schooler, crippled with arthritis, frail, and elderly. He can only watch his peers at play through his glasses. As time passes, his health improves and he becomes more able. It becomes clear that he was born an old man but that he is getting younger as time goes by.
Benjamin's mother dies giving birth and his father, horrified by the appearance of his son and by the death of his wife, at first considers throwing the infant in a canal (the movie is situated in New Orleans) but he ends up leaving the baby as a foundling at an old folks home where little Benjamin fits right in. He's taken in by Queenie, a black maid at the home, and her boyfriend or husband, who is the cook. Benjamin is raised as their own, with no mention ever being made of race. I really liked this although it's impossible to conceive of the reality of a race-blind New Orleans in the Twenties, Thirties, Forties, Fifties, and Sixties. Benjamin calls Queenie "Momma," and he's treated by all as her son.
It's a heartwarming story from the time we meet Queenie, with age as the defining metaphor. In the old folks home, frail elderly come in, dead go out, and young Benjamin watches it all through the cataracted eyes of a pre-schooler, then a pre-teen, then a teen as the hormones kick in and hair starts to grow on his body. As befits the little old man that he appears, Benjamin is wise beyond his years, and we get a wizened view of life.
I didn't really get any depth from the movie. It was a great story with great feeling, but no great lessons. And that's fine. It ran about two hours and forty-five minutes, and it held my attention throughout. It's well-written, with good characters, good dialogue, and good visuals.
I highly recommend the short story, whether you've seen the movie or not. Neither will spoil the other as there are no plot similarities at all. The story is much more bitter-sweet than the film. I recommend all of F. Scott Fitzgerald's short stories. He was excellent. Many, maybe all, of his short stories deal with youth and the failure of its promise. The story of "Benjamin Button" deals with it in reverse. The movie misses that entirely, as a Hollywood film must. The ending of the short story is one of the best I recall.