The Curious Case of
Benjamin Button

Many actors and actresses are big stars in Hollywood because they look good, but Brad Pitt is one of the few facing discrimination because he is pretty. Throughout his career, the man has proven time and time again that he is a great actor, and he should get an Oscar nomination for this movie. It’s the one that will make you cry. It will make you feel love. It will make you laugh, and it will do it all with honest emotion, good writing and great acting.

Pitt stars as Benjamin – a baby who looks like some sort of horrifying alien when he is born. His mother passes away during childbirth, and his father doesn’t want to have anything to do with him, so Benjamin is dropped at the doorstep of a local retirement home, where he fits right in. It turns out Benjamin is not an alien. He’s just a baby who is aging in reverse.

As he grows younger by the day, our hero starts to live, but what kind of life will it be?

When he falls in love, can it work out?

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a beautiful, touching, bittersweet and romantic movie. More than I have ever seen before, director David Fincher captures the sadness and exhilaration of life and puts both side by side in a way that is undeniably moving and every aspect of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button reflects this, especially Pitt’s performance.

Pitt has put in one of the great acting performances of the year, but it is not one that relies on words or grandiose chewing of the scenery. It’s a performance you have to pay attention to in order to capture the subtleties and soft touch he uses to evoke our emotions. He shows us Benjamin’s sadness as he becomes more familiar with death and the reality of each person’s mortality, the pain he feels trying to keep his condition a secret, and the regret of missed opportunities. Yet, Pitt also shows us the thrill and excitement of living, his pure joy at being in love and the eagerness he has to set out to see the world.

Some will say the whole movie is a bit of a Forrest Gump tale, but I think Fincher and writer Eric Roth add more depth to it than that. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a whimsical, yet, thoroughly southern tale that continues to capture your attention once the initial curiosity about the condition of aging backwards is satisfied.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is rated PG-13 for brief war violence, sexual content, language and smoking.