on a cold night on the eve of wwii in russia and a diplomat wife ( tilda swinton ) share tea with a most peculiar tugboat man name benjamin button ( brad pitt ) . when she ask him where be he from and benjamin reply and new orleans . louisiana . swinton character reply and i do not think there be any other . this moment come about forty minute into the film which have be establish on the ground of a woman ( julia ormond ) reading to her die mother ( cate blanchett ) from the diary of benjamin button a hurricane katrina sweep over new orleans . the ghost of a new orleans now lose haunt david fincher lyrical adaptation of f. scott fitzgerald short story about a man who age backwards . there no denying this film couldn not have be make five year ago and not only because the technology wasn not there to make the process of age backwards look real and but it would have also be a completely different movie a screenwriter eric roth wouldn not have be able to bookend the film with blanchett on her deathbed a hurricane katrina come to literally wipe away her life . the story be hang on a gimmick and and the film tell a a fable and but there ground in the reality of life great mystery that speak volume about not just the death of a man or a woman and but the death of a city and the death of a way of life . a big part of make the audience believe in the story fall on the film technical aspect represent the make up and the cgi and the period piece detail of the film set design and costume . if you look close enough and you can find thing to nitpick and like the distract disembodied voice of cate blanchett distort onto a little girl and but for the most part fincher construct it all seamlessly . in term of scope and sentiment and the curious case of benjamin button seem a complete departure for a director usually obsess with darker more violent tale and but fincher have always like his plot to begin ( think seven or panic room ) or end ( think the game or fight club ) with a gimmick and and he always be a filmmaker obsess with cut edge technology ( think of the viper camera use to film zodiac ) . fincher do a superb job with his meticulous construction of these element ( compliment nicely by alexandre desplat subdue score ) and and he really win the audience over with his flashback within flashback that be do in a charmingly stylized manner that remind u be watch a movie that mean to be enjoy above any other pretense . by shift the central location of the story from the original setting of baltimore to new orleans and roth open the film up to a new layer of interpretation . though the episodic tale of pitt benjamin grow young while blanchett daisy grow old span the globe from manhattan to russia to paris and the character hearts remain united in new orleans . roth and who also pen the thematically similar forrest gump pepper his screenplay with many momentous event from the 20th century and but those moment ebb and flow through benjamin life just a the other character do show u that life be make only of moment . none of them last forever . the support player ( include a gutsy performance from taraji p. henson a benjamin adoptive mother who run a nursing home ) be wonderful and allow pitt and blanchett to shine a the movie star that they be . sure and these two have probably give good performance elsewhere and but here they have be give role for which they might be best remember long after their star power have dim . in a year when the film with the most impact ( like the dark knight ) have be those that have tap into the fear and mindset of the time we live in and it rather fit that a movie like the curious case of benjamin button come along at the end of the year . it should be one of those movie that hold audience rapt in hushed silence and but it also the type of movie that usually receive instant backlash . i wonder how it will stand up over time . on the surface it attempt to tell a timeless tale and but in a bittersweet way prove the opposite . movie star like pitt and blanchett and movie like this and story and fable and dream and city like new orleans . none of these thing be timeless . timelessness be just a flight of the imagination . like the idea of a man age backwards . but what a wonderful flight it be .