This really is good, even if the premise makes me scratch my head. It's serious drama, not comedy or light fairy tale. The aging backwards seems incongruous with everything else, particularly how it's taken in stride by everyone aware of it. What's it trying to say?
I loved the movie.
I think there's a whole bunch of stuff this flick is taking on, in different stages of the flick -- which is what I think we can expect from something that was taken, inspired, remade, and modernized from the mind of F. Scott Fitzgerald.
SIDE NOTE: I read The Great Gatsby in High School and did love it. I never read Ben Button short story, though.
Okay, back to the Button flick...
Here's some thoughts of mine from the movie....
Early On
I think the whole ordeal w/ the lead-girl and Benjamin early on (when he was looking about 80, yet he was really young) was taking on OLD guys chasing after VERY young girls. Just look at the reaction of the mom, for example. LOL.
Also, one of the funniest things in the flick is when Ben goes to the brothel at his VERY young age, while still hiding from most that he's really young (despite looking like he's a 80 year old) -- and winds up having sex at a very young age! Some people do not at ALL look their age -- whether they look older or look younger than what their age actually is.
Theme
And yes, one of the themes I think is -- not everything is what it really seems. Ben might look old, but he definitely isn't -- even though he's treated as what he looks like. Vice versa is true, as well -- Ben was really old, but he basically turned literally into a baby -- and is treated as such. The film is...quite backwards.
Late In The FilmI think when Ben was looking young, but really was extremely old was taking on the subject of how when people become older, you really become more like a child -- and loved ones do end up having to take care of you as such.
I couldn't figure it out, other than a device to fuel the human drama.
I do think it's ALSO a device to fuel the drama -- but, I think it goes way beyond just that, as I'm explaining in this post.
But the movie is, like life, a journey, and a very worthwhile one, even if the destination isn't.
Exactly. I think that's how most people's lives end up, myself.
Ben and Daisy
Look at how, pretty much, as much as Benjamin and Daisy do meet-up and (finally) get together in the "middle" years, when Ben and her actually look the same age. But, like most things in life, as much as these two do belong together, they never will be...
I like the movie. It's good, but after watching it again, I thought..."eh, Ive seen this before..years ago..when it was called "Forest Gump"....
Kid without a dad born with birth defects...check
A caring Mom that believes he has great potential...check
Both are unable to walk...but then one day...check
Both meet the love of their life as a child and then they part ways...check
Both end up traveling the world...check
Both of their lives intersect with key historical points of the 1900's...check
Both end up going to war...check
Both end up saving the day singlehandedly...check.
Both hang out with a drunken old sea guy...check
Both end up going home and find out that there mother is dying...check
Both end up inheriting wealth...check
Both end up reunited with the "Love of their life"...check
They bone, and she gets pregnant...check
They part ways again...check
Later they are reunited...check
Autism = Aging backwards
Feather = Humming bird
We can go on...heh. It seems as though, Eric Roth is a one trick pony.
I mean, the movie is still pretty good, and I enjoyed it. But it isn't something I can watch over and over. Maybe every couple of years or something. But I don't think it's as good as I initially thought.