New Year's Eve. Time for a matinee. The Oscar buzzworthy film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was the subject today, based on the short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. 2 hours and 48 minutes of Brad Pitt in fantastic makeup from old man to handsome man to young boy. As always, the trailer:"I was born under unusual circumstances..."
I should say so! The story is told in a hospital as old woman Daisy allows her daughter to read Benjamin's diary so she can know the man who courted her so many years ago. Hurricane Katrina bears down on the hospital, but instead of fleeing, the daughter wishes to say a proper goodbye to her dying mother. So they bond over the readings of the diary, learning (or in the case of the dying woman, revisiting) the life of this odd man.
Born the day The Great War ends in 1918, Benjamin emerges from the womb an old man. As the years progress he becomes YOUNGER. Fraught with the "monster" his wife died delivering, Benjamin's father drops him off on the steps of an old age home, where he is taken in and over the years fits in with the elderly crowd. Benjamin watches the residents die off as he slowly becomes younger.
As children, Benjamin and Alice, the granddaughter of a resident, forge a friendship that lasts over the years. Rites of passage for Benjamin while away seeing the world on a seafaring vessel (first drink, first trip to a brothel, and first affair with a married woman) occur, then Benjamin returns to Louisiana and eventually rekindles his relationship with Alice. Their trajectories are polar opposites: Alice grows older, Benjamin grows younger. Eventually they "meet in the middle" and consummate their relationship. A child of their own is brought to bear, and Benjamin is torn with the fact that Alice would now have to care for TWO children as she ages. Distraught by this fact, Benjamin leaves to grow younger and eventually die. The pair's relationship comes full circle as they both end up in the very old age home where they met: Alice as old woman, and Benjamin as youngster and finally a dying infant.
The mortality of life takes center stage here. Not a cautionary tale, but rather one of introspection. What does it mean to grow old? How does one face their own mortality? How do relationships evolve during the aging process?
A few slow spots as we see 17-year-old Benjamin take to the high seas, but once we get through those scenes the film picks up again and it is truly a delight.
Long, but The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a solid Full Price.
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