THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON

US, 2008, 165 minutes, Colour.
Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Julia Ormond, Taraji P. Henson, Mahershalalhashbaz Ali, Jason Flemyng, Tilda Swinton, Elias Koteas, Jared Harris, Elle Fanning.
Directed by David Fincher.

This is quite a film, always interesting and entertaining through its almost 3 hour running time. It has been written by Eric Roth (who won an Oscar for his screenplay for Forrest Gump – which has many similarities with this one) and is directed by David Fincher, a director with a high and offbeat imagination and visual style, especially in his two highly influential films Se7en and Fight Club, both of which starred Brad Pitt.

Brad Pitt stars again. It is quite a brave and demanding performance from him. He is matched by Cate Blanchett.

Most people will know that this 'curious case', from a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is about a baby who is born as an old man and who lives backwards, appearing younger and younger as the decades go on, but inside he is old from birth and will reverse to baby mentality when he dies. With some special effect work, the younger (older) Benjamin looks like an old man but is short in stature, gradually changing to the Brad Pitt we know. The earlier scenes imagine what Pitt may look like as he ages; the later scenes remind us of what he has looked like in past films. Pitt also has to speak the voiceover and make it convincing and moving, which he does. It is a bravura performance.

Cate Blanchett as Daisy, on the other hand, appears at age 80 at the beginning of the film. She is in hospital, dying, in New Orleans at the time of Hurricane Katrina. She wants her daughter, Caroline (Julia Ormond) to read Benjamin's diary aloud and to learn about him. Daisy also tells a magic realism story of a clockmaker in New Orleans who creates a grand clock for the railway station – but it moves backwards, the clockmaker's reminder that we want to recapture life and change it (as he and his wife felt when their son went to World War I and was killed). This fable enables us to enter into Benjamin's life and journey as he is born in New Orleans on the night World War I ends.

As with Forrest Gump, Eric Roth's screenplay tells the story of an unusual man who lives through crucial events in American 20th century history: the post-war 20s, sailing in a tugboat through the 30s, commissioned to fight in World War II in the 40s. The visual style of these decades images the films of the period (with a very funny recurring image of a man who was struck by lightning seven times done in silent film style). The photography becomes brighter during the 1960s and onwards as Benjamin returns home, has a tumultuous then happy relationship with Daisy but has to face the reality of his growing younger as she grows older and the question of whether she will be able to mother Caroline as well as himself.

There are some interesting interludes throughout the film: Benjamin's father (Jason Flemyng) abandoning his son but wanting to be with him as he grows up, Queenie and Tizzy (Taraji P. Henson and Mahershalalhashbaz Ali) caring for the ugly baby and bringing him up as their son, episodes on the tugboat with the hard-drinking, tatooed womanising captain Mike (Jared Harris), a meeting with the wife of a British diplomat in snowbound Russia in the late 30s (Tilda Swinton) with an interlude about her swimming the English Channel, a performance of Carousel on Broadway. And, all the time, Daisy is getting weaker, Caroline is surprised at what she is reading and Hurricane Katrina is turning and heading straight towards New Orleans.

At the halfway point of his life, Benjamin has the opportunity of living the life of Gatsby – and the heroine's name is Scott Fitzgerald's favoured name, Daisy. Benjamin is something of a variation on the Gatsby story, coming from nowhere and prospering. But Benjamin is a good man, a reverse Everyman of America's 20th century. And there is plenty to reflect on in terms of the meaning of life and death, grief and loss, love and care.

1.The acclaim for the film, awards? The career of the director? The career of the screenwriter? The strong cast? An F. Scott Fitzgerald short story?

2.A story written in the 20s, transposed for the 21st century? The 20th century American history? The visuals for the past, colour, silent film techniques? Sets? The contrast with the growing realism in the 20th and 21st centuries? The background of Hurricane Katrina.

3.The story and the challenge to the imagination, living backwards? Differences, others, age, loss and letting go?

4.The prologue, the story of the clock, Mr Gateaux, his wife, his painstaking work on the clock, his son going to war, his son’s death, the grief, the installation of the clock, Teddy Roosevelt and others being present? The clock going backward? His speech about the reversal of time – and the visualising of the reversal with his son coming back from the war? Mr Gateaux’s disappearance, in the rowboat? The clock changed in 2003? Digital? The old clock stored – and the Katrina floods coming in?

5.The setting of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and its destruction in 2005? The TV news, the threats, the decisions to be made on evacuation?

6.Daisy and her dying, in her eighties, the makeup for Cate Blanchett, convincing? Her story of Mr Gateaux? Caroline tending her mother in her death, her mother’s illness, the work of the nurses, relief from the pain? Daisy talking, the enigma of Caroline’s life and her not fulfilling her mother’s hopes? Getting the diary? The continual return throughout the film to the hospital scenes, enabling chapters of the diary to be inserted?

7.Benjamin’s story, his diary, the voice-over, the tone? The linear time from 1918 to 2005 contrasting with Benjamin’s life going backwards?

8.The birth scene, the end of the war, Thomas, his wife’s death, her asking for safety for the child, his revulsion towards the baby, running, the police pursuit, leaving the baby with the money on the steps? His later meetings with Benjamin, talking with him, his company, drinking? Finally telling him the truth? Taking him to the house, the pictures, Thomas’s story about meeting Benjamin’s mother and their marriage? The story of going to the lake for the sunrise, Thomas’s illness, Benjamin taking him to watch the sun? His death, the funeral? Benjamin giving his daughter the name Caroline?

9.Queenie, Tizzy? Their talking, discovery of the baby? Their strong characters, their work in the house, the detail of the work in the house, meals, cleaning, tidying? The elderly and their life in the home? Queenie and Tizzy and their accepting of the old baby, of a white baby? Their life in the home, their continued care, Queenie becoming Benjamin’s mother? Tizzy and his reciting of books, Benjamin’s education? The grandmother and the other residents? Daisy coming to visit? The piano lessons for Benjamin? Benjamin’s editorial comments on the old people, on Queenie and Tizzy, on the effect on his life?

10.The gallery of old people, the humour, foibles, respect for them – and the humorous insert of the man struck by lightning?

11.Benjamin as a little old man, the photographic techniques and the makeup for Brad Pitt to appear elderly? His life inside the house, the various visitors, the piano lessons, getting older and going out? His encounter with Captain Mike, sitting on the docks, being invited to work, his zest for working on the boat, part of the crew, always volunteering? His friendship with Mike, his being taken out drinking, the visit to the brothel, the effect, the women? Mike as a character, hard-drinking, the artistry of the tattoos, his relationship with women? Benjamin asking him to take himself and Daisy out on the boat on the Sunday trip? Their seeing the liner? Benjamin and his leaving home, on the boat, travelling the world, the experience, Russia? The outbreak of war, Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt’s speech? Mike and the boat going into service? Benjamin naming the crew, their personalities – and the twins fighting on land? Mike and his giving the option for the crew to stay for the war or not? The discovery of the bodies in the water, the submarine emerging, the boat crashing into it, the deaths? Benjamin and his survival – and the crewman trusting him so much to give him his money to send to his wife?

12.Benjamin and Daisy, the young Daisy, their friendship, her instinctive understanding of him, the outing on the boat, Benjamin leaving, the range of postcards he sent?

13.Benjamin, his life at sea, the ports, understanding the world? The time in Murmansk, the winter? Seeing Elizabeth and her husband, his role as a diplomat, Elizabeth expressing disappointment at their not going to Beijing? Benjamin discovering her in the night, their talking, the tea, sharing the stories? Elizabeth and the affair, her strict rules? Her impersonal note and her departure? Her story about swimming the Channel, visualising it, her stopping – and Benjamin seeing her on TV later, swimming the Channel at sixty-eight?

14.The overview of the 1920s, 30s and the war period? The post-war period?

15.Benjamin’s return, love for Queenie, Tizzy’s death? His work with the elderly? Daisy’s arrival? Her skill in dancing, going to New York, Daisy’s life, the visualising of the auditions, her career, visit to New Orleans, sharing with Benjamin, grown up, their going out, her dance movements, the sexual advance, Benjamin’s refusal? His later going to New York, seeing her perform in Carousel? The flowers, the aftermath, the party, her relationship with David, on the street, her leaving him? The effect on Benjamin? Her going to Paris?

16.Benjamin’s analysis of the chain of events leading to Daisy’s accident, the detail and the visualising of all the people involved, the accident, Daisy in hospital, her sending him away, her self-pity? The years passing? Her return?

17.Benjamin and his father, the different life, the yacht, women, his age and appearance? Daisy’s return, their love, sharing a life, the enjoyment (Gatsby-like)? Their talking, discussions, buying the home, her pregnancy, the wariness about what the baby would be like, the birth, all well? Daisy and her teaching children in the ballet school?

18.Caroline, the revelation of Benjamin as her father, the effect, her needing time, the urgency of Hurricane Katrina, the discussions with her mother?

19.Daisy continuing the story, the retrospect, the revelation, her sad life, her commitment to Benjamin?

20.Benjamin’s regression, his love, the decision to leave, wandering the world, travelling through India? Sending the postcards for Caroline? Daisy and her grief, marrying, running the school, Benjamin’s return, the night with him?

21.The police, the diary, Benjamin as a child, living abandoned, Daisy caring for him, the piano lessons, the years passing, her mothering him, his continual regression as a child, an infant, a baby? Her holding him – and the eyes of recognition at the end?

22.A portrait of two lives, young to old, old to young, the skill of Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett at each phase of their lives?

23.A what if, imaginative film? On life and death, grief and loss, joy and a life well lived?