The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Ken Follett once wrote a wonderful piece in The Writer on how he believes 'high' and 'popular' literature differ. He says 'popular' literature is built around an idea or action, while 'High' literature is often concerned with the internal dilemmas of the character at the expense of plot or story.

Well, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button certainly has a neat idea behind it, that of a man who is born 'old' and slowly grows 'younger' as years pass. And it does carry Fitzgerald's name, so you'd expect some artistic merit. Is this the rare combination of both style and substance?

Eh, not so much. Keep in mind two things. One, the movie took the germ of the story from Fitzgerald and concocted a very liberal adaptation. And two, somehow they managed to take a movie that should hinge largely on an original, intiguing storyline and made it a strictly character driven film.

I liked the movie. No, I did, I swear. But I liked it in the same way I enjoy sitting down with an old man and listening to him tell the tale of his life. That, in a nutshell, is what this film offers: the rather mundane but well told memories of an average joe.
Is he born 'old'? Yes. Does he grow 'younger'? Yes. Does it miraculously seem to have no bearing on the plot or the shape of his life? Yes. You could remove the age gimmick from the movie and sell it, as is, as a bittersweet lifelong romance. He grows up in a nursing home, but it appears to be no different of an upbringing than that of any other child whose parent is a live-in nurse. He un-ages while serving on the high seas, but it's brushed away with a two sentence exchange with his captain. He spends a large amount of time onscreen as standard-age Brad Pitt. And so on.

To repeat, I liked the movie and don't regret a minute I spent watching it. But a masterpiece or high art it was not.

3.0 out of 4