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2008 Paramount Pictures

Often enough around holidays, epic films are released that not only feature strong actors, but an inventive idea that has existed for decades that had to wait until film-making techniques were advanced enough to accurately portray it at its fullest potential.  I am, of course, talking about Twilight, Four Christmases, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.  No doubt this movie will receive recognition at the box office and during awards season, but more importantly will it remind us as viewers about everything life has to offer: it’s precious, it doesn’t last forever, and death is a natural part of it.  Benjamin Button shows us that, and so much more as the tale progresses forward through time in the opposite direction of its title character.

From the very beginning, we’re faced with death, or rather, an elderly women on the verge of it.  Daisy, gracefully portrayed by a surprisingly striking Cate Blanchett throughout the film, and her daughter Caroline remain in a New Orleans hospital as Hurricane Katrina begins to batter the city and send everyone into different states of panic.  The devastation of such a major event seems only a contextual bookmark for the realtime characters as Caroline and Daisy begin to look into the story of the original love of Daisy’s life, Benjamin.  By now, we all know that Benjamin was born under unusual circumstances, more specifically a baby with all the attributes of a person in their old age.  As Benjamin is raised in a retirement home, the connections he has with the true elderlies that live there display what I can only describe as a paradoxical parallel:  Benjamin’s peers are headed towards death as they grow older while his own path is slowly taking him further and further away from old age, but down the road, death is still the end.  As we follow a world tour that echoes of the adventures of Forrest Gump (oh wait, Eric Roth wrote both of these), we stay close and connected to Benjamin as he discovers the aspects of life  (love, hurt, happiness, sorrow, and much, much more) like any growing person could.

Brad Pitt has always been a talented performer.  Here, as Benjamin, Pitt goes beyond natural and truly embodies a character richly complex.  The ability to portray a boy with the feeble characteristics of a weathered elderly and retain that wide-eyed curiousity and innocence of youth doesn’t seem feesible, yet Pitt takes on the arduous task and adds to it a growth and maturation that defines character development.  Meanwhile, Cate Blanchett gives her usual best, and takes on every notion of who Daisy is in a similar progression, the incredibly graceful dancer, the immature twenty-something unsure of her life and beyond in her later years.  She provides the heart and emotion of the two leads, and reminds us that she loves her craft.

Director David Fincher, known for darker works Fight Club, and Se7en has always had a grasp on gripping storytelling, and this film is no exception, even with its daunting length.  Benjamin Button, however, takes Fincher’s oftcold style and adds layers of humanity rarely seen in his work: warmth, love, and emotion, even without a rollercoaster ride of happy and sad.  This film doesn’t work to squeeze tears from its viewers, and I think its intentional.  We’re not watching the story of a reversely-aging man to feel sorry for him, but to see his life celebrating everything that we should celebrate and embrace.  Continuing with Fincher’s storytelling, he brilliantly uses various devices to evoke the major themes of the precision of fate (through a fascinating sequence of events that leaves viewers brains racked),  time’s cruel indifference to every human, the temporal nature of our lives, and the lives of those we love.  The Curious Case of Benjamin Button lives up to the hype of its performances and its technical effects (which will undoubtedly continue to draw recognition), yet holds to a certain simplicity in its atmosphere and storytelling that can remind us of the inevitable natures of life and death in remarkably thought-provoking ways.