The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

This dramatic fantasy is anchored by Brad Pitt's subtle performance, writes Michael Dwyer

THERE'S AN 88-second online video that succinctly illustrates the many resemblances between The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttonand Forrest Gump, beginning with the fact that Eric Roth scripted both.

The Curious Case of Forrest Gump, as the video at www.blinkx. com is titled, notes that each relates the story of a remarkable boy raised in Louisiana by a single mother, how he's handicapped at birth but learns to walk, and as a child, meets the true love of his life.

The video, which I don’t recommend watching before seeing David Fincher’s new film, goes on to list many other narrative developments common to both movies, at least superficially. And Fincher’s film has received 13 Oscar nominations, exactly as many as Forrest Gump got before winning six, an outcome that may well be repeated on Oscar night this month, although not in the same categories.

"I was born under unusual circumstances" is the opening line from Benjamin Button. That's quite an understatement as Button (Brad Pitt) is born the size of any other baby but with the wizened features of a man in his 80s. As he enters the world, his mother dies. The movie's motif, rooted in matters of life and death, is flagged early, when an inventor unveils a huge clock designed to go backwards as a symbol of willing back to life soldiers lost at war.

Following Benjamin as he gradually reverses in age to childhood, the movie spans the decades from New Orleans in 1918 to the recent past as TV bulletins signal the advent of Hurricane Katrina. Its basis is an F Scott Fitzgerald short story, which was inspired by Mark Twain’s view that “life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of 80 and gradually approach 18.”

Would it really be happier? That question arises inevitably in the relationship between Button and his childhood sweetheart, a dancer named Daisy and played as an adult by Cate Blanchett. Their ages intersect at an intensely romantic juncture in the spring of 1962, but as he gets younger and more handsome (and as Pitt looks as boyishly cute as in Thelma & Louise) Daisy is getting older.

Abandoned at birth by his father, Benjamin is adopted by caring Queenie (Taraji P Henson), the caretaker at a retirement home where baby Button’s physical appearance fits in perfectly. Echoing the adage of Forrest Gump’s mom that “life is like a box of chocolates”, Queenie repeatedly tells Button: “You never know what’s coming for you”.

That’s a prescient observation indeed, given Benjamin’s eventful succession of picaresque adventures, set against historical backdrops from the 20th century. He goes to sea on a tugboat captained by a boozy, tattooed Irishman (a peculiarly accented Jared Harris); has a wartime encounter with a German submarine; and enthusiastically engages in an affair with the wife (Tilda Swinton) of a diplomat-spy in Murmansk.

The framing structure that cues the extensive flashbacks is trite and obvious, but on every level the film is superior to the wretched Forrest Gump. Fincher never allows the unfolding, generally intriguing saga to drag over a running time that's close on three hours. His lavish production is adorned with some gorgeous tableaux, and Greg Cannon's elaborate make-up and prosthetics work is outstanding.

Not for the first time in a Fincher film, it is difficult to engage on any emotional level with the characters. Some never rise above caricatures, with the exception of Jason Flemyng’s affecting portrayal of Button’s father and Pitt’s subtle delineation of all the many changes in Benjamin as he goes backwards and time moves forward.