The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – GC Movie Review

Rated: PG-13 - for brief war violence, sexual content, language and smoking
Genre : Dramas
Theatrical Release : Dec 25, 2008 Worldwide
Starring: Brad Pitt , Cate Blanchett , Taraji P. Henson , Tilda Swinton , Jason Flemyng , Elias Koteas , Julia Ormond , Peter Badalamenti
Director: David Fincher
Screenwriter: Eric Roth
Producer: Kathleen Kennedy , Frank Marshall , Cean Chaffin
Composer: Alexandre Desplat
Studio: Paramount Pictures

Synopsis: Director David Fincher and Brad Pitt team up for a third time with this phenomenal film which is very loosely based on a 1922 short story by F Scott Fitzgerald, which itself was inspired by a quote from Mark Twain: “Life would be infinitely happier if only we could be born at the age of 80 and gradually approach 18.” Pitt plays a man who is born 80 years old, but instead of aging, he grows young.

I must admit that when I first heard the title of this film, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” I immediately thought that this was a children's movie; an animation. So, my interest was not piqued at all, even after I discovered that Brad Pitt was starring in the film. However, after watching the trailer, not only was my interest piqued, but I had to see this film.

I read the full length synopsis with child-like wonder and thought about how my life would have been had it run in reverse. Would I change anything? If I had a second chance to do things differently, what would I seek to change and what type of life would I have right now? But shortly before I was to attend the screening, a good friend clarified for me that, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” was not the type of film that simply sparked those types of questions; it forces you to go deeper. It requires you to decide right here and right now, how you intend to live the life you've already been given? Are you going to live forward or backward?

The pause that her description created in me almost had me pick up the phone and refuse the screening opportunity, but (no pun intended) my curiosity got the best of me.