Life Glanced Backwards
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
Time waits for no man, regardless of whether it is moving forward or backward. Brad Pitt plays the character of Benjamin who deviates from normality the moment he was born. As the life of people around him plays forward as they grow older, his life unfolds backwards in the opposite. Adult issues as morbid as death stare at Benjamin in the beginning years of his life as an old man, and he learnt about the departures and fragility of life then. The film depicts the notion of what life is, and how certain issues in life such as death, age and disasters are all beyond the control of human.
Notwithstanding that, it also depicts how timeless love can be, between two people whose life advances in contrary to each other, where they realized that even though there comes a conversion point somewhere in their lives, there will ought to be a diversion thereafter. Particularly poignant is the scene where Brad Pitt's character showcases what it is like to let go, when the time calls for it after realizing that he cannot provide a normal life to Daisy (Cate Blanchett). Equally heartwrenching is when Blanchett's character epitomizes what timeless love means by showering Pitt's character with unconditioal love as he undergoes huge transformation.
For a film which garners 13 Oscars nominations this year (just one short of the record 14 nominations by Titanic in 1998), it totally did not fall short of my high expectations for it though the 166min runtime was a little draining in the beginning. The film encompasses what a Best Film should have, especially Pitt and Blanchett stellar performances which has totally blown me over. Their seemingly innate onscreen chemistry in this film totally outshines that in Babel. I thought that the film has many depressing moments and my heart sank many times throughout the screentime as it's not diffficult to visualise the predicament and agony of the characters. And the most amazing and worth-mentioning point is that you will be totally in awe of how Pitt and Blanchett is able to play the wide range of their ages convincingly yet subtly different at different stages. Don't miss it ! Catch it in cinemas =)
It's all about doing the right things at the right time under the right circumstances...
In awe~
