415 - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, United States, 2008. Dir. David Fincher.

Monday, February 19, 2018

415 - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, United States, 2008.  Dir. David Fincher.

Spoilers.


The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a love story.

Benjamin grows backwards.  He is born old and ages in reverse until he is a baby at old age.

He meets the love of his life, Daisy, when they are 5, but as they go through puberty and reach their teens and twenties, he is still just too old for her.

She plans to wait.

They meet in the middle in their 40s, the glorious decade when love finally blossoms, and they have for awhile the life they always wanted.

But when they get pregnant, he fears that he will become a burden to Daisy.  As he keeps aging younger, he will eventually become as a teen, a child, a toddler, and an infant.  He will make a poor father, and he will be a burden to Daisy. She will go from a wife and mother of one to a single "mother" of two.

Benjamin wishes to spare Daisy this burden.

The story is told by Daisy to her daughter--their daughter--Caroline when Daisy is an old woman.  It is also told by Carolime's reading of Benjamin's private journal, which Daisy herself has never seen. Both provide revelations.

Among other things, the film is a showcase of make-up and effects.

And it is touching.

Oh to love and be loved when you are in your 40s.