by Sun Meilan

Created on: June 19, 2009

When Benjamin Button is born, everyone shies away from him in disgust - instead of a pink healthy baby, he is what looks like a little old man. Thankfully, a kind woman called Queenie who runs an old people's home takes Benjamin in and brings him up. He is at home amongst the elderly because he has much of their attributes. As he grows though, he seems to get younger and younger. By the time he is 17, although he looks in his 50s, he decides to leave home, promising to write to childhood friend Daisy from every port of call. Soon, he falls in love and forgets about Daisy, but on returning home after the War, he finds her there, all grown up and beautiful. They eventually embark on a love affair, but bearing in mind Daisy will age and Benjamin will grow even younger, is there any hope for their relationship?

Brad Pitt plays Benjamin Button. I don't think the role demands all that much of him; obviously he is aged at first and grows gradually younger (until he is so young that the role is taken on by a child actor), but apart from that, this is very much a story of someone's life and Pitt isn't required to show all that much emotion. Nevertheless, he still does very well and definitely endears himself to the audience - he reminded me very much of Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump. I wasn't all that convinced about his relationship with Daisy either. There seems to be very little chemistry between the two of them - it felt almost clinical at times. This may have been because it just didn't seem all that likely that they would get together, I'm not entirely sure. Thankfully it doesn't matter all that much because, for most of the film, Benjamin is alone.

I have a great deal of respect for Cate Blanchett as an actress; she is one of the few actresses that can hold her own against an actor of the calibre of Brad Pitt - on the whole, actresses disappointingly fall into the secondary role category. Not so Cate Blanchett. This film is primarily about Benjamin, but as Daisy, she still more than manages to make her mark. This is partly because of her striking looks, and she looks fabulous in a ballerina's outfit, but also because she has real screen presence. It is a shame that she doesn't seem more comfortable with Brad Pitt; I'm not exactly sure which of them is at fault, but it does feel very cold when the two of them are together. She ages substantially during the course of the film - again, this is done very well.

Tilda Swinton was good as Benjamin's married lover. I'm

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