What DID Benjamin Learn in his Life?

Rating: 8/10 (8 January 2009)

This is the first movie I have seen this year, and it is a fine David Fincher masterpiece. But here in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", Fincher tackles a story furthest from his previous masterpieces, "Se7en" and "Zodiac." This movie is based loosely from a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, with the main idea of being born old and growing younger with the passing of years . The story can fit into a single web page, but this movie takes this plot point and stretches it to nearly three hours of cinematic time.
This film has been compared to "Forrest Gump" because of several parallelisms between the two movies. They are both long films that depict the passage of time with a series of episodes in the lead character's life. Maybe because they both happen to share one scriptwriter, Mr. Eric Roth? But while Forrest Gump is an active participant in the events (like in Vietnam or the pingpong), Benjamin Button was more of a passive observer of the people and events around him.
This is my main reservation about the movie in general. I felt it would have been better if they had spent more time in the part where Benjamin is an wise old man with youthful looks. Ironically, at the time when he is older and already supposed to have all the experiences behind him, he looked younger but without any apparent wisdom. In fact, it seems he became more reckless and irresponsible as he grew older. This sort of limits the performance of Brad Pitt as well. When Benjamin looked like he was 12 years old, he already had dementia, so we never really learn what this type of living backwards in time has achieved in him.
As for Cate Blanchett's character Daisy, we see her development more clearly as this was described in detail by Benjamin in his diary. I really like that sequence of scenes depicting how a series of small events led to a most unfortunate accident. I liked that montage of touching scenes showing how old Daisy took care of the demented child Benjamin. My main issue with her character was her attraction to the old child Benjamin. When and why did it happen? This was not clearly explained.
The movie is long, yes, but it is engaging and you will want to know what happens next. The photography is luminous, both intimate and panoramic. Being a story that spans practically the entire 20th century, the costumes, set design and make-up are meticulous. Since Benjamin was born old, there are special effects to execute what happens to his body as he gains in years. While the effects to make Brad Pitt look old may be easier to imagine, how they make him regain the fresh youthful face we saw in "Thelma and Louise" at a certain point is really amazing.