Life is like a box of buttons, and this film is too like "Gump"

Rating: 7/10 (11 February 2009)

The odd premise is well-realized, technically, and the film's acting and production values are fairly flawless. But in its loosely episodic narrative with its patina of well-polished, folky wisdom, it reminded both of us independently of "Forrest Gump"and that was before we found out it was written by the same guy. Tell you what: You want to watch Brad Pitt age backwards? Go rent "Thelma and Louise" and "Kalifornia." Otherwise, watching Kate Winslet in "The Reader" aging in the forward directionthough largely without accumulating much wisdom in the processis much more satisfying. The casting, actually, was also good, putting Pitt and Blanchett together again as in "Crash." Enjoyed seeing Jared Harris in a more manly role than the sympathetic supporting one in "Igby Goes Down." It may be from the Fitzgerald story, but why does the main black female character have to be named "Queenie"? How about "Mildred," if you have to be period-accurate? Finally, the initial support for the premise, the human losses of the Great War--World War I--ought perhaps to have had its tragedy better woven into the subsequent narrative of a life lived backward, paralleling the idea of the clock that ran backward in honor of those tragic losses.