The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) PG13 - 4 Stars

Really great movie but wow it is long. It took me a few viewings to get through the entire movie and I think it would be best to watch it all in one sitting. I do like the direction the movie took, based on the 1920's story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, an ailing mother is awaiting her fate, while her daughter Caroline (Julia Ormond), reads the diary of her mothers romance with a man in her youth. As she reads the diary, she discovers the story of her true father and the events that took place with her mother Daisy (Cate Blanchett) in 1918 New Orleans towards the end of World War I.

Thomas Button (Jason Flemyng), lost his wife as she gave birth to their only child Benjamin. But Benjamin was not a normal baby, in the body of a baby, he is afflicted with a crippling disease of an 80 year old man. Hideous to look at, his father takes him immediately from the crib and leaves him on the doorsteps of Queenie (Taraji P. Henson), a young black woman, running a home for the aging. Queenie looks at Benjamin as a miracle from God and takes him in and raises him as her own since she is unable to bare children. The movie follows Benjamin's life, as he ages backwards, meeting the love of his live, Daisy taking them both into the 21st Century.

Awards include:

2008 - Academy Winner - Best Art Direction - Donald Graham Burt, Victor Zolfo
2008 - Academy Winner - Best Makeup - Greg Cannom
2008 - Academy Winner - Best Visual Effects - Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt C. Dalton, Craig Barron
2008 - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - American Film Institute - Best Picture
2008 - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Houston Film Critics - Best Cinematography
2008 - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - National Board of Review - Best Director
2008 - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association - Most Original, Innovative or Creative Film

Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, Paramount Pictures
Director: David Fincher
Writer: Eric Roth
Producers: David Fincher, Kathleen Kennedy, Cean Chaffin

I viewed 5/09