The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Genre: Drama
Language: English
Director: David Fincher (Se7en, Zodiac)
Cast: Brad Pitt (Se7en, Ocean Series), Cate Blanchett (Lord of the Rings Series), Elias Koteas, Jason Flemyng, Peter Bergman
Runtime: 166 min

Plot:

The elderly Daisy (Cate Blanchett) is on her deathbed with her daughter Caroline (Julia Ormond) in a New Orleans hospital as Hurricane Katrina approaches in August 2005. Daisy tells the story of a blind clockmaker named Gateau, who was commissioned to create a clock to hang in the New Orleans train station. After receiving news of his son's death during the World War I, he continued work on his clock, but intentionally designed it to run backward, in the hope that it would bring back those who died in the war. After her cryptic story, Daisy asks Caroline to read aloud from a diary containing photographs and postcards written by Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt).

I watched this movie on 14 Feb late night @ The Cathay with Sylvia.

Brad Pitt is one of my favourite actors thus I will not give this movie a missed. With its extraordinary plot, it really brought me into thinking about life. Is there really a person who is unable to stop time, but is born in his eighties and ages backwards. Is there any difference from us who age the normal way?

After the movie, all i can conclude is all human race has to go through the same cycle, no matter you aged forward or backward, the difference probably is the way of experiencing the cycle that is different. Example in the movie, when Benjamin was a child in age but physically he was an old folk, he was curious about what the other children in the neighbourhood were playing but was forbidden mainly due to his old, weak body. But his mentality still kept him going and he picked up piano quickly.

He understood that he was special and knew that he could not lead the same kind of life like the rest. However, everyone had to go through life and death. He witnessed death of his fellow housemates, his father, his foster parents, his colleagues. He saw the birth of his own daughter but feared that she might inherit his special illness. He made the decision to leave his loved ones knowing that they cannot be able to cope if he would to stay and be a teenage dad by the time his daughter grew up.

Although the film was draggy in the middle but the touch of humour and the love encounter now and then helped audience to sit through the almost 3 hours movie. I felt if the last aging process could be illustrated more, the whole story could be more complete.

ah-deng says: 4/5 Impressing make up skills and unique plot.