Movies: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

It's not revealed until the credits roll, but David Fincher directed "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." In hindsight, the movie displays all the earmarks of a Fincher film - Brad Pitt in the lead role, good production values and camerawork, an aggressive refusal to edit extraneous parts of the story, and a certain pretension/ambition that invariably falls short of the mark.

Benjamin (played by Brad Pitt) is born with a remarkable trait. He physically ages in reverse, becoming younger as the film goes on. Orphaned at a young age, he is adopted by the caretakers of an old folks' home, but strikes out on his own in order to find his place in the world.

Pitt here is tasked with portraying an old man in a young man's body, but I think Cate Blanchett steals the movie from him; her older versions are more wise and more laden with burdens than Pitt's latter incarnations. As always for a Fincher film, the story takes some unnecessary detours (an uninteresting WWII stint and an overlong affair with a lonely woman played by Tilda Swinton). By the third act, the film feels like it's run out of gas, though the ending isn't as terrible as Fincher's other movies (*cough* Alien³ *cough*)

Rating: 6/10