Untimely Encounters

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Directed by David Fincher. Starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett.
3/5 Stars

There is an elderly man in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button who claims to have been struck by lightening seven times throughout his life. Whenever he encounters Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt)—which occurs sporadically over several years—he makes conversation by telling him about each lightening strike. Even after this man’s death, the motif carries on as lightening, or at least stormy-like weather, occurs during key moments as the characters’ lives progress. The film is also told entirely in flashback, as a woman reads Button’s diary to her dying mother in a New Orleans hospital while Hurricane Katrina relentlessly approaches.

Temporality is really the star of this film. This Forrest Gump-style of storytelling (not surprisingly, the same screenwriter wrote both films) presents the life of Benjamin Button from birth to death. But what is so curious about Benjamin’s life is that while he is living in a world in which everyone and everything is moving forwards, he is moving backwards; he was born as an old man, and as he ages he grows physically younger.

Based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story, this idea is indeed an intriguing concept. The film is also splendidly made: the cinematography is simply beautiful; the makeup and special effects are astounding; and David Fincher (Fight Club, Zodiac), in his third collaboration with Brad Pitt, should be awarded with his first Best Director nomination at the upcoming Oscars.

The acting too is superb. Brad Pitt masterfully portrays Benjamin in all stages of life. How he effectively captures the emotions and the mentality of a young boy who has the physical characteristics of someone much older is fascinating to watch. Pitt surely put in a lot of effort in adapting his body language in order for it to be manipulated by computers so he could appear to have the height of a young boy, all while under heavy makeup.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button could maybe even become a favourite for Best Picture. With all of its sublime qualities, it would be easy to label it as a great film. Believe me when I say that I want to give it that label. I really do. I immensely enjoyed watching it and was totally immersed in the story during the whole two hour and forty-six minute running time.

The film simply cannot work with how it structured Benjamin’s life and his romance with his childhood friend Daisy (Cate Blanchett); it rejects all logic of time and romance. Yes, the film is fictional, I understand that. But even fantasy has to be presented as logical. Benjamin is born as an old man in an infant’s body and ages into a regular infant. His life is not circular, or even partially circular. It is still projected onto a linear line like everyone else's, it's just moving backwards for him. This problem is what the screenplay fails to realize.

The romance is flawed because Benjamin ages backwards. When they are younger and in their early thirties (although he looks much older), Daisy presents herself to Benjamin but he declines, thankfully, but why? Is he worried about the physical age difference, or any sexual thoughts he has of her as a young child? Later, when their physical ages meet during the middle of their respective lives, they finally do make love. Now they ruined it! Does he not have the same image of her as a child? Does she not think of him as an old man? How could their initial friendship have evolved into this romance? Could they not see the future and where (or, when?) their lives were headed? Yes, but not until it was too late. In the end, when she visits him while he is a child, she acts as his mother and is not his lover. Why could they not have seen this happening when they first made love?

I have developed what I believe to be a conclusive list of scenarios to make this film logical within the story’s fictional concept: 1a) Benjamin ages into a fully-grown man who looks like an infant child (that would be weird); or, 1b) his biological mother gives birth to him as a fully-grown, elderly man (that would be interesting); 2a) Benjamin and Daisy do not fall in love and never have sex (that would be boring); or, 2b) as well as making love while being middle-aged, Benjamin accepts her love-making offer while they are younger, AND to bring closure to the relationship, as an elderly woman, Daisy must have sex with Benjamin when he is physically a young teenager (that would be awesome).