'Benjamin Button' gives new perspective on youth, aging

01/23/09 - Jake Gyllenhaal quoted David Fincher at the Golden Globes in January when he said, "'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' does not settle for the notion that youth is wasted on the young. Whichever way you are going, however you end up, life is complicated, and making it work is your responsibility."The job of a director is to make each film he or she does work, and David Fincher made the film work-in a number of ways.

My favorite movie of all time, like many other people, is the film "Fight Club." The film was directed by Fincher and starred Brad Pitt, so when I saw that Fincher and Pitt were teaming up again, I couldn't resist. The result was extraordinary.

Fincher not only chose an all-star cast, including Pitt, who plays Benjamin Button, and Cate Blanchett, who plays Daisy, but also an incredible story to adapt, originally written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, that focuses on a man who is born in his 80s and ages backwards into infancy.

The story itself is rather depressing, but Fincher adds a nice touch of comedy as he shows a young Benjamin, who looks very old, going into bars, getting drunk and having sex with prostitutes.

The story of Benjamin's life is told by the older version of Daisy, who is now on her deathbed during Hurricane Katrina.

The story takes us through Benjamin's life from the day he is born, through his years as a sailor and up until he reaches the age of 13 or 14 when he is diagnosed with dementia. This is the last time he can remember the last sixty years of his life, and the last time he has the opportunity to write of his love for Blanchett's character, as well as Elizabeth, played by Tarren Cunningham and his love for work and doing what he had to in order to get by in a world that wasn't always accepting.

It is hard to imagine having to tell someone that you are aging backwards. How would you make someone believe without knowing them for years?

What I enjoyed about the movie was the focus on the people that Benjamin Button met throughout his life. Through the movie, we meet Elizabeth Abbot, who would eventually swim the English Channel, Queenie (Taraji P. Henson), who served as Benjamin's mother figure, Captain Mike (Jared Harris) who goes down with his ship, Daisy, who loses her love eventuall, and all those who lived in the old person's home that Queenie took care of.

From these people, we see how complicated life is, no matter how you grow.

Lastly, the visuals of the movie were absolutely stunning: Daisy, for example, dances in a vibrant red dress to the backdrop of washed-out colors, and Benjamin and his father sit out by the lake with bright colors of orange yellow and red filling the background and trees reflecting off the water.

These scenes are followed by a montage of "love" scenes between Benjamin and Daisy after they have just moved into their new home. The two seem nothing short of in love. I am no artist, but all three of these scenes seem to be what someone would refer to as the "perfect shots."

The film even features two very young newcomers to acting-whose older immediate family members have made claims to fame. Dakota Fanning's little sister Elle Fanning makes an appearance as the young Daisy, and Pitt's daughter Shiloh Jolie-Pitt makes an appearance as Benjamin and Daisy's child in her infant stage.

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" was nominated for five Golden Globes, and while it came away with no wins, I still have high expectations for the Academy Award. In fac,t I think that it would be a curious case if it came away with nothing.