by Vince Ryan

Created on: January 17, 2009

The film is way out of the Best Picture league but it might have a shot for Best Adapted Screenplay. After all it was the inclusion of the Hurricane Katrina scare that made the movie extra savory. Director David Fincher was also the mastermind of such films as Seven, Fight Club, and Zodiac. And though he is a bankable director, I personally believe that his forte is action/crime films, TV commercials, and music videos. I don't mean to criticize his direction in any way but I felt that this movie would've been better off left in the hands of a director such as Forrest Gump director Robert Zemeckis or Titanic director James Cameron. You know someone who could breathe more life into such an imaginitive screenplay.

Based on a 1922 short story about a man who ages backwards, the movie is about a baby bearing the resemblance of an 86-year old man. The story was told through flashbacks while an elderly Daisy lay on her death bed at a hospital. It all started when his birth father leaves him on the front porch of two complete strangers who raise him as their own. As the man begins to de-age he meets a young girl by the name of Daisy with whom he befriends. They become fast friends but soon after Benjamin leaves the house to embark on a whole new journey. He experiences sex, other women, sailing in the middle of sea, belligerent activites, and miscellanous stuff. Despite being away from his hometown he still has only one person in mind and that person is Daisy. He genuinely cares for her and wrote to her whenever he got the chance. Finally years later, a more younger Benjamin goes back to his hometown and one day him and Daisy have a reunion. It was from that point onwards when the couple became united. However, their happily ever after was short lived as Button started to relay concerns about whether he can father his child as he gets smaller. It is this epiphany that causes him to bolt and go on a secular crusade. But one day fate drives him back to New Orleans where the younger adult Benjamin meets with Daisy for one final rendezvous. After this the next time we see Button is at the piano stand at age eleven. Daisy's domineering love even for the child Benjamin causes her to take care of him until an infant Benjamin dies in the arms of Daisy.

The morale of this movie was that love and time have absolutely no proportionality. You can love someone and at the same time be capable of loving the same person no matter how they evolve superficially. The concept of growing down is like a dream come true and I'm sure it appetizes us all. And although the story is movie material it isn't best picture material. Brad Pitt's performance can be described as meek while Cate Blanchett, in her typical fashion, delivers. Slapping in the eventual landfall of Katrina was a profitable added dimension and it only served to further capture the audience while Daisy frantically laid there hoping to reunite with Benjamin after she passed. The symbol in the hummingbird was a crucial prop to the film and it is analogous to Benajamin Button. Just like how Benajmin ages backwards unlike others the hummingbird is able to fly backwards unlike other birds. The hummingbird also symbolizes how we should always cherish the good times and never look back. I noticed quite a bit of similitaries between the style of this film and Forrest Gump which is why I recommended Robert Zemeckis to the directors chair because I'm sure he would've tweaked this film around until it reached the ranks of Best Picture.

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