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Benjamin Button

This year's most anticipated blockbuster contains the kind of high-tech aging regression techniques that Madonna has been perfecting for years. Based on the short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Benjamin Button proves that no matter how you live it, life is too short, and therefore deserves to be enjoyed with reckless abandon.

Brad Pitt plays Benjamin, a child born with the physical appearance and ailments of a man in his 80s, who appears to age backwards. As a newborn, Benjamin's father abandons him at a nursing home where he is found and reared by Queenie (Oscar nominated Taraji P. Henson), a feisty matron who loves Benjamin unconditionally, despite his freakish circumstances.

Born with a taste for adventure, Benjamin meets a string of entrancing characters on his journey – Jared Harris as Captain Mike for example – many of whom leave his life just as swiftly as they entered it. The only character we do see a lot of is Daisy (Cate Blanchett), a vivacious young girl with a passion for dancing.

benjamin button film review brad pitt cate blanchett

As both characters experience their first loves and losses, their paths cross repeatedly. It takes a drastic accident to finally unite the pair in their years of middle age.

The film is epic in length and has an ambling storyline, like the knock-kneed Benjamin in his early years. And while Itchy enjoyed how the film's pace echoed Benjamin's desire to roam, impatient souls might not find this too appealing.

Another nagging problem comes with Blanchett's Daisy, who is not just a constant presence in the film but also a constant annoyance. Her voice is either abnormally deep or very badly dubbed – whatever it was, it made Itchy twitchy.

Button's situation makes him the type of person destined to be a loner; a wandering bohemian seeking to experience all that he can from life before it's too late – an outlook many of us can learn from.

Don't expect to be blown away; this movie, as the Oscars acknowledged, is no Slumdog Millionaire. Simply enjoy The Curious Case... for what it is; an eccentric fable, executed well in cinematic splendour.

166 mins
Dir: David Fincher
Starring: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Taraji P. Benson</p>

Sally McIlhone

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