The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a movie about chance. It is about the incidents that shape a life. It is about the incidents that almost shape a life. It is about how timing determines which is which. And it is about all of these, brilliantly.
Button uses indelible period detail, burnished and polished, to tell the tale of Benjamin, a character born an old man, near death. As time passes, he grows younger, eventually spritely. It’s a fanciful, fable-like transformation—his body aging in reverse while his mind and spirit ages forward. His tragedy is watching those he loves age normally, without him.
The movie was once a pet project of Steven Spielberg, who moved on to other things. In stepped David Fincher. His previous work – Se7en, Fight Club – seems incompatible with material this potentially sentimental. Where Spielberg would’ve wrung every tear inherent in the material, Fincher withholds all big emotions and makes Button a journalistic companion piece to his Zodiac. In his hands, it is truly a Curious Case study.
The centerpiece of Button is a romance between Benjamin (Brad Pitt) and Daisy (Cate Blanchett). He falls in love with her at first sight and she has a twinkle in her eyes, a demeanor, that sets her apart. There’s a spark to their first meeting, but, alas, nothing can come of it. She’s a young girl; he appears an old man. My daughters would call the scene where she invites him into her fort, made from a bed sheet, “creeperville.”
And so it goes. Benjamin and Daisy, two people of the same age, crossing paths throughout time, but only when they appear to be the same ages are they able to connect, briefly, romantically. It’s a great metaphor for how it is not enough for two people to be in the same place at the same time to find each other – it must be the right time as well.
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