The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The movie version of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story (about a man who is born old and ages backward) favors a broader, more romantic and melancholic rumination on fate and mortality than the print version. It’s true, most of us fall apart as we age, but this lucky son of a bitch turns into Brad Pitt. The requisite apprehensions about turning a story of only a few pages into a film of feature length are promptly dispatched—or, well, protractedly dispatched; this Curious Case takes up nearly three hours. If there is a discernible Fitzgeraldian touch, it’s that Benjamin, in spite of his affliction, always seems to have certain advantages. The aforementioned Pittness, yes, but other privileges, too, like the sensitivities of Claudio Miranda’s cinematography and Alexandre Desplat’s score.