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 Film
I 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...