The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

This year has been full of movies that delight in storytelling and David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is no different. In fact one might say this movie, over most others this year, is delirious in its ability to tell a story no one could believe in the most human and believable way. We meet Benjamin as the first World War ends and we say good-bye to our characters at the time of Hurricane Katrina. Styled in a similar sense as Forrest Gump we see this extraordinary life spanning the benchmarks in American history through flashbacks. Anyway, so we meet Benjamin, he is old at birth, like a man on his way to the grave. His father leaves him on the steps of a retirement home, ironically. He is taken in and raised by the care taker of the older folks in the home Queenie played with endearing heart by Taraji P. Henson. The first years of Benjamin's life are spent fairly normally until one day he meets Daisy, the granddaughter of one of the women in the home. She is a pretty little girl with red hair and dazzling blue eyes. She changes his life. From then we see his his journey through ports on a boat, through a touching affair with an unsatisfied woman played in perfect pitch by Tilda Swinton. Benjamin grows younger as he ages, so the next time he returns home it is much more youthful than when Queenie last saw him. Then there is Daisy who has been pursuing dancing and is now played by Cate Blanchett. Bradd Pitt becomes more apparent in his digression as well. Eventually fate and delightful storytelling lead them back to each other. Here is the emotional crux of the movie. Last year we saw Keira Knightley and James McAvoy, two lovers we knew deserved each other, but were torn apart by circumstances beyond their control. It is the same here. From the beginning we know that there is an inherent sadness in two people in love passing each other in age in opposite directions. To tell anymore is to spoil. Yet I must touch on the lavishness with which it is made, the immense heart that pumps the blood of the movie, and key perfs from Blanchett and Pitt. Blanchett and Pitt provide a surprising amount of chemistry to lead the audience to believe in this love. The greatest scene in the movie happens in a dance studio at night when the two have now far passed each other in age, Pitt a youthful 20-something, Blanchett approaching her 60s. It is a remarkable scene. Many have complained upon the length of the movie, but upon seeing it and experiencing it I believe it could not be any shorter. Once you reach the end, the real, final end you as the viewer have felt the journey and it is justified to reach the level of emotional pitch that the ending conveys. One of the best of the year and surely will live beyond this award season.