5/27/2009

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

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"I've never seen anything like it. Blind from cataracts. I'm not sure if he can hear. His bones indicate severe arthritis. His skin has lost all elasticity, and his hands and feet are ossified. He shows all the deterioration, the infirmities, not of a newborn, but of a man well in his 80s on the way to the grave."

Suspend your disbelief right from the start of this intriguing fantasy drama.

On the night of WWI Armistice, an infant is born but his mother dies in childbirth. Stunned and depressed, the baby's father abandons him on the streets of New Orleans where he is found by Queenie (Taraji P. Henson) who works and lives in an old folks home. She takes the infant in and raises him as her own. Despite the prediction of his early demise, the old man in the baby's body grows and flourishes among the old folks and with the love of Queenie.

As his body gets larger, Benjamin (Brad Pitt) becomes less frail -- and younger.

The story is told as a diary read aloud by Caroline (Julia Ormond), the daughter of Daisy (Cate Blanchett), an elderly woman who is dying in New Orleans whist Hurrican Katrina heads toward Louisiana.

Others in the cast include: Elias Koteas as the clockmaker; Mahershalalhashbaz Ali as Queenie's husand Tizzy; Elle Fanning as a young Daisy; Jason Flemyng as Benjamin's father; Tilda Swinton as Elizabeth, the married woman Benjamin has an affair with.

Directed by David Fincher.

Run time: 2 hours, 48 minutes

Rated PG-13 for brief war violence, sexual content, language and smoking.

My personal rating: B+

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