The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" certainly is a stunner, for the most part. Taking the outline of an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story, the film follows Benjamin Button, a New Orleans native born into a body the size of an infant but with the health and appearance of an 80-year-old who then ages backwards as he grows older.

It's a tragedy, for sure, as Benjamin's body shrinks to that of a toddler's, but his mind is attacked by dementia. If you can't accept that scenario upfront, the film won't work for you. If you go with it, you'll enjoy this quite good, long, deep drama, directed by David Fincher ("Fight Club" and "Zodiac") and written by Eric Roth ("Forrest Gump" and "The Insider").

Brad Pitt plays the title character, abandoned at birth, raised by an African-American woman in a home for the elderly and who eventually sets off on a career as steamboat worker. Along the way Benjamin falls in love with Daisy (Cate Blanchett), who will age as any other person. With its immediate promise of doomed love and certain tragedy, Fincher could have made a film soaked in sentimentality, but for the most part it remains upright. Well, there are two out-of-nowhere scenes involving a dumb hummingbird visiting the two leads some 60s years and thousands of miles apart that smacks of feathers in "Gump" and butterflies in the piece of poop that is "Patch Adams." Alas, as Benjamin chooses a career in boating, goes to war, stumbles into great wealth and longs for a promiscuous dreamer who disappears for long stretches of time, the film echoes "Gump" in several ways. (I never read Fitzgerald's story. For all I know "Gump" may have stolen from this.)

The pluses outweigh the negatives, though. Through flawless makeup and digital altering, Pitt and Blanchett appear on screen in ages ranging from their teens to their early 80s. Button is not a good-two shoes naive like Tom Hanks' Gump, he happily sleeps around, as does Blanchett's Daisy. And both characters take turns committing acts of selfishness. In Button's case, one act is nearly unforgivable despite its common sense. With those marks of true human nature, it's a deeper film than "Gump." Despite its crazy twist, its flaws and those of its characters, "Button" is a winner. B+