At the beginning of the year 2008, someone emailed a list of movies to watch out for. Right from the start, I got curious about The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and emailed my friends that this was the #1 movie I would watch out for in said list.
Late last year, I found out that my ultimate crush Brad Pitt had been cast as the lead, and that only intensified my longing to watch the mysterious film.
As luck would have it, I found myself in Singapore, the land where all Hollywood movies are shown late. By the time I watched it, most of my friends had already seen it, and while a couple said it was a good film, there was also a couple others who said that it was boring. So I was having second thoughts about spending good money for something I would end up regretting.
Still, we bought tickets and at the end of that Tuesday night, our verdict was that all 650 cents and three hours we spent on the movie was worth it.
Benjamin Button’s story is an unusual one indeed. He was born an infant in size but with the wrinkled skin and ailments of an 80 year old man. As he grows older in age, his body does the reverse, and he ages backwards – alone.
Before he reaches his teens, he meets the girl who would change his life forever – Daisy, who knows right off the bat that he is no ordinary man. Though he goes off to be a sailor and she becomes a ballerina, they keep their friendship alive by the postcards he sends her from every stop.
After a tragedy befalls her, they reunite and finally become lovers after he replies an impish “Absolutely!”to her question. This, by the way, is one of my favorite parts of the film.
Benjamin’s story takes place in the past but is being read out loud from his diary by Daisy’s daughter, who finds out halfway through reading that Benjamin is her father, and, as she cries out at her mother, “this is how you choose to tell me!”
She reads on about how her father made a big sacrifice of leaving them so that she and her mother could lead a normal life. Her mother then relates the story that Benjamin was no longer able to write down in the diary, the story of how he grew down (?) to be a baby and she took care of him until he closed his eyes in her arms, never to wake up.
The movie was a romantic poignant one, with a spattering of humorous one liners and deep insights. It had excellent visual effects. Both Cate and Brad really looked younger or older when they needed to be, though Benjamin in his earlier scenes gave me the willies (think Gollum of LOTR here). The totally hot guy he turned out to be in the middle of the film, however, completely erased whatever negative feelings you may have had at the beginning. *_*
All in all, it was a very wonderful film, and I was not bored for a single minute of it.
Here are my favorite lines:
While everyone else was agin’, I was gettin’ younger… all alone.
Benjamin Button: I was thinking how nothing lasts, and what a shame that is.
Daisy: Some things last.Our lives are defined by opportunities, even the ones we miss.
Daisy: Would you still love me if I were old and saggy?
Benjamin Button: Would you still love ME if I were young and had acne? When I’m afraid of what’s under the bed? Or if I end up wetting the bed?Daisy: Will you sleep with me?
Benjamin Button: Absolutely.It’s a funny thing about comin’ home. Looks the same, smells the same, feels the same. You’ll realize what’s changed is you.
I know the circumstances and I’ve accepted that. Loving you is worth all of it.I’m always lookin’ out my own eyes.
Life can only be understood looking backward. It must be lived forward.
You never know what’s coming for you.And if only one thing had happened differently: if that shoelace hadn’t broken; or that delivery truck had moved moments earlier; or that package had been wrapped and ready, because the girl hadn’t broken up with her boyfriend; or that man had set his alarm and got up five minutes earlier; or that taxi driver hadn’t stopped for a cup of coffee; or that woman had remembered her coat, and got into an earlier cab, Daisy and her friend would’ve crossed the street, and the taxi would’ve driven by. But life being what it is – a series of intersecting lives and incidents, out of anyone’s control – that taxi did not go by, and that driver was momentarily distracted, and that taxi hit Daisy, and her leg was crushed.
For what it’s worth: it’s never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.
Benjamin, we’re meant to lose the people we love. How else would we know how important they are to us?
You can be as mad as a mad dog at the way things went. You could swear, curse the fates, but when it comes to the end, you have to let go.
We all end up in diapers.