The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

I don't like long movies. I think a movie has to be pretty good to justify being longer than two hours; I prefer a taut 90 minute feature. I also don't care for predictable movies. I like unusual, ambiguous, twisty storylines; I get bored when the story arc is so obvious we can see what's coming from miles away...

So when I approach a three hour movie where the basic premise is known up front, it has to be really well done to keep my interest. Titanic was an extreme example of this, but it did in fact pull it off (at least for me).

Benjamin Button is another example, and it also pulled it off for me, and did it even better. Most people either know the premise before even seeing the movie, or get it early on: a man is born old and grows younger. And not too far into the movie you realize it is a doomed love story: the man and the woman are destined for each other, but given that they are aging in opposite directions, their relationship can't last.

And yet the execution of the story is so well done, the acting, the details, the overall mood and feel, that it kept me interested straight through. Nothing earth shattering, but a great story...

A complaint I've heard applied to Benjamin Button is that it is too much like Forrest Gump. First, that's not necessarily a bad thing -- I happen to like Gump. Second, while there are definitely similarities and parallels, ultimately Benjamin Button becomes its own movie, especially in the second half. Personally I think it dials back a bit on the drama and sentimentality compared to Gump, and doesn't rely as much on gimmicks like Gump being involved in historical events. Button is that much more poignant for telling an interesting and subtle story...