This subject is clearly close to screenwriter Eric Roth’s heart. When he wrote of Forrest and Jenny in Forrest Gump (based on a novel by Winston Groom as Button is based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald), he found another love story sparked to life at first sight during youth. Forrest and Jenny’s paths also intersect through time and only align intimately for a short time when Jenny allows herself a moment of refuge from her wandering and self-loathing.
Forrest says, “I don't know if we each have a destiny, or if we're all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze, but, I think maybe it's both.” Button explores the same ideas. In a wonderful sequence, characters, seemingly unrelated, forget a coat, oversleep, cross a street, and momentarily get distracted. We see how these incidents changed Daisy’s life and how fragile the chain was. Her life could easily have stayed the same. And yet, in retrospect, the events seem engineered to finally bring Benjamin and Daisy together.
Button offers another delightful illustration. A man repeatedly asks Benjamin, “Did I ever tell you I’ve been struck by lightning seven times?” Each time, we see a quick silent movie-like shot of him being struck. He fondly recalls these incidents though: “They remind me that I’m alive.”
I find myself pondering these ideas as well, often. I met my wife through a personal ad in Seattle, an ad I almost didn’t write, an ad she almost skipped over. And how different life would be if she’d enjoyed her job in Aspen. How different if my former girlfriend hadn’t handed back the ring.
Life can be such a crapshoot. Or are the dice loaded?
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