CAST: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Julia Ormond, Taraji P Henson
DIRECTOR: David Fincher
Swept aside by the Slumdog Millionaire wave at the Oscars barring a few technical awards, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button isn’t just about amazing make-up and special effects making Brad Pitt look geriatric. Rather, it is an exploration of that one idea that never leaves our side from the moment we comprehend it: every single day, or if you see it that way, every single moment, we are ageing.

Screenwriter Eric Roth adapts a short story by F Scott Fitzgerald and turns this fear around. Benjamin Button’s (Pitt) greatest apprehension is not that he will age, but how young he will become, how many loved ones he will outlive, whether there will ever be a day when his body and mind match, whether he and his love can find the perfect time and space to be together, whether he would ever be able to be a father to his child.

Eight, 18 or 80, one is never perfect for very long; time passes. Life isn’t measured in minutes, underlines the film, but in moments. Still, sadly, for all it’s trying to tell, The Curious Case¿ really doesn’t sadden or enthrall. It is impressive yes, but not engrossing. And the long length may be just part of the problem.

Benjamin is born the day the World War I ends in 1918. His mother dies during childbirth, and his father, scared at the sight of the baby he is holding, leaves him at an old age home. Perhaps the thought that the baby is born in almost the last stages of old age doesn’t have anything to do with the father’s decision, but it turns out to be providential.

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