The Curious Case of the Missing Storyline (Benjamin Button)

I know two rational middle aged men who were moved and touched by this film. I wasn’t, but I liked it well enough, it’s beautifully made, and very detailed, as Fincher films tend to be. What troubles me about Benjamin Button is that it doesn’t have a smooth storyline; it is really a bunch of vignettes strung together, and oddly, this nearly makes the film’s intriguing premise – a man born old and growing younger - irrelevant. In the title role, Brad Pitt is understated to the point of blandness; Cate Blanchett is lovely but she has little to work with. Without question the highlights of the film are the scenes in the dingy Russian hotel with Tilda Swinton, and the ones with Jared Harris, the salty sea captain. Taraji P. Hensen, playing Bejamin's loving foster mother, is also terrific: when she takes in this monstrous, ugly baby, saying simply "He is still a child of God," you believe her.