Masterpiece Theater

"It is not commonly known that the fluttering wings of the hummingbird move in the pattern of an infinity symbol - further solidifying their symbolism of eternity, continuity, and infinity."

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"Along the way you bump into people who make a dent on your life. Some people get struck by lightning. Some are born to sit by a river. Some have an ear for music. Some are artists. Some swim the English Channel. Some know buttons. Some know Shakespeare. Some are mothers. And some people . . . can dance." - Benjamin Button

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, starring Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Taraji P. Henson, and directed by David Fincher, adapted from the short story of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald, which in turn was inspried by the Mark Twain quotation, "Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen."

A complete and stunning masterpiece - just no other description for it. Brad Pitt never looked handsomer as Benjamin in the prime of his youth riding his motorcycle and taking a sailboat out onto Lake Ponchatrain, and Cate Blanchett as Daisy is ravishing with red hair.

The film opens (with no opening credits) with Daisy in the hospital, an elderly woman at the end of life and her daughter Caroline (Julia Ormond), Hurricane Katrina threatening to make landfall. Her daughter, preparing herself for her mother's imminent death, reads to her from a diary of a man born with a curious condition - instead of aging gradually forward like the rest of us, he "de-ages" in reverse; born a baby physically 80 years old, who gradually regresses. From then on, with the story beginning with Mr. Gateau, builder of a backwards-running clock for the train station, designed that way to turn back the hands of time and with the hopes of bringing back sons lost in the war, it is a delightful, magically-filmed fairy tale. Benjamin's father, distraught at the loss of his wife in childbirth, and not knowing what to do with such an unusual child, abandons him at a nursing home, where Queenie (Henson), a woman who can't have children of her own, is more than happy to assume Benjamin's care. Everyone he meets at the nursing home during his "growing up" years makes an impression on him and teaches him something about life, no matter how short of a time they are with him, and broadens his life experience; in fact everyone he meets everywhere does the same.

New Orleans is a very romantic and earthy place, with the Garden District's streetcars, the wrought-iron filligree gates and balconies of the French Quarter, and the great Mississippi (a teller of time in itself), and you are transported there, can almost feel the air thick with the musty humidity that you can almost cut with a knife. Always with the reminder of time passing in two different directions, Benjamin and Daisy's lives intersect for an all too short time of happiness. He leaves, not wanting to burden her, for The Timeless Places of Cambodia and India.

Brad's accent is impeccable. The aging makeup and special effects are the most realistic I've ever seen and is worthy of an award all by itself. There is warm humor (Ever tell ya 'bout the time I was struck by lightnin'?). It was beautiful to see the metamorphosis of Benjamin's shoulders from those of a frail, elderly man to the breadth and strength of a younger man's as he gains the strength for and learns about life.

And as always, there is David Fincher's wonderful use of music as the decades pass, with definitive artists of their eras, such as The Platters of the '50's (the soulful and meandering "My Prayer"), leading into The Beatles of the '60's.