"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ****

In many ways, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is about the act of storytelling, about the ways in which the slightest changes in pacing and the minutest of details can alter an entire storyline. The film is based upon a 1921 short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, a master storyteller in his own right who understood implicitly the mysteries and magic of narrative.
Directed by David Fincher of Fight Club and Zodiac fame, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button traces the story of a man who ages backwards. The narrative is delivered through the man’s diary, as well as through the voice of an 80-year-old woman named Daisy (Cate Blanchett), who lingers on her deathbed in the company of her daughter Caroline (Julia Ormond).
As we learn from the diary, Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt) was born in New Orleans in 1918. His mother dies in childbirth, and Benjamin himself is a monstrous sight to behold: the size and shape of an infant, he is afflicted with cataracts and arthritis. Distraught in his wife’s death and overwhelmed by his son’s condition, Benjamin’s father Thomas (Jason Flemyng) abandons him on the doorstep, appropriately, of an old folks’ home. Benjamin is subsequently raised by Queenie (Taraji P. Henson), a childless nurse who believes that the frail, aged infant is her miracle baby.
With each passing year, Benjamin becomes younger, healthier, and fitter. At 13—still suffering from the pangs and traumas of old age—he meets Daisy, to whom he confesses his unusual predicament. At this juncture, the movie becomes constructed by a series of micro-narratives involving Benjamin’s life on a tugboat, his experiences in the Second World War, and his affair with a British woman (Tilda Swinton) during his sojourn in the Soviet Union, among others. In each instance, any change in the slightest of details and plot points would alter Benjamin’s narrative in its entirety.
As a study in the intricacies of narrative, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a great triumph in filmmaking. Much of the film’s power finds its roots in Fincher’s incredible cinematic eye: the movie is overbrimming with nuance and detail, not to mention a host of captivating palettes. Yet The Curious Case of Benjamin Button owes its greatest debt to Blanchett, whose spellbinding performance carries the movie from its humble beginnings to its masterful conclusion.