In 1922, F. Scott Fitzgerald published a short story about a man that was born old and grew into a baby as he aged. While Fitzgerald's ghost is likely flattered that his story has been adapted for the screen (with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett as the leads, no less! "What, Angelina was unavailable?" his corpse might joke, but I digress), I have a feeling that movie and story both were inspired in part by William Shakespeare.
In Shakespeare's famous "All the world's a stage" monologue from "As You Like It," he describes seven stages in the life of a man, noting that very old age begins again to resemble babyhood, "sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything."
Macabre stuff, no? But in delivering this message, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – the movie perhaps more so than the story – is able to more or less transcend the need for a traditional plot arc. Rather than a (3 acts), we're presented with a series of events in the life of this one very unusual man. While the various events and characters are each critically important to Benjamin himself, they are often of little consequence to one another. While the film student in me was a little put out by such a rash structural decision, I can't help but observe that real life works just this way. And tragic though it may be, the observation of a life lived backward puts a sharp focus on how universal and lonely the journey (and occasionally exhilirating) toward death can be.
Benjamin Button will no doubt strike some moviegoers as another one of those too-long epics that doesn't know when to quit. To be sure, not everyone can endure a 3-hour film with only a handful of jokes or explosions. But this is a film that, despite its length, manages to stay continuously engaging and full of fascinations. Not the least of which is the breathtaking moment when a finally-youthful Brad Pitt comes racing down the street on a motorcycle. Somebody, please, give that man an Oscar…
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