Had a look at The Curious Case of Benjamin Button today...

If you watch solely the first 90 minutes of this film, you have an instant all-time classic. An intriguing plot complimented by instantly likeable characters with impeccable depth. No greater compliment can come from me that Cate Blanchett can be considered anything but an unpleasant distraction, Brad Pitt also delivers more than necessary, given that his performance is always going to be largely remembered for the gimmicky aspects rather than what he brings to the table as an actor.

Now pause the film here, and skip straight to the end.

By doing so, I've just saved you an unnecessary 90 minutes that exists on film, solely for the myth that for a film to be considered an all time classic, it has to run to a Gone With The Wind-esque duration, a 90 minutes that being kind, offers at best, a Cliffnotes version of not only Forrest Gump, but also The Notebook, with bonus chapters on Titanic and Catch Me If You Can, of which serves as a telegraphed step by step guide for what will happen, without having to think too hard.

The death of the two most prominent supporting cast members serves as a bookmark, for when the movie loses all direction, inspiration and originality, instead relying on what has worked for other films, such as those above, to instigate forced, yet unnecessary emotive responses from the audience. (think the episode of Friends when Monica gives the speech at her mother's birthday, and brings up the memory of her dead dog, and other dead relatives to make her speech more memorable)

Borrowing the concept of famous historical timepoints as a backdrop to the progression of the plot, as used in Forrest Gump, combined with the story presented as an dementia striken old woman on her deathbed retelling her story, which brings back memories of not only the Notebook but Titanic, is a clever way of aiding the progression of these forced emotive responses from the audience, but brings about too much stuffing, and not enough chicken for mine. Brad Pitt's character serving in World War 2, for example, serves as a distraction, rather than the development of any plotline.

By the end of the film, I felt ripped off, bordering on cheated, that the producers of this film phoned in the second half of a film that offered so much promise in the first 90 minutes. Whilst the films removes the played out cliches of the "different", awkward child unable to fit in with the rest of his peers, and subsequently mocked which appeared in the novel, it also loses what I feel is the most endearing aspect of the novel, whereupon the character of Benjamin Button attempts to enrole at Yale, but is turned away mistaken for an elderly man, only to later enrol at Harvard as an elderly man with the appearance of a 20 year old.

The woman who played Button's stepmother, Taraji Henson deserved, at the very least, an Oscar nomination for her role, whilst Jared Harris's portrayal of the drunken sea captain contributes much more to the film than you would have ever expected.

Underneath the superficial aspects of the film, lies an unnerving message in the film regarding the public perception of adult-child relationships, whilst not going all out to condone it, but strongly condemns the supposed ignorant view of society by the naked eye. With Cate Blanchett's recent strong support of Bill Henson, I hope this is nothing more than a coincidence and reading far too much into things, but regardless, the reasons for the sudden love interest between the elderly at the time-Button and the young version of Blanchett's character is unsettling at best.

In conclusion, what could have been the epic that was so obviously the goal, was ruined by laziness and a need to use recent classics as a deity to force the audience to shed a tear or two, rather than rely on the convictions of the script itself.

**/*****