The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a polarising film that lies firmly within the Magical Realism genre, which often straddles the line between whimsy and nonsense and often struggles to find a point to the strangeness. In this case, the film tells the story of Benjamin Button who ages backwards and is told in many vignettes, along the lines of Forrest Gump. Brad Pitt does a great job as the main character showing all of life's stages and how his reversed aging tears apart any relationship he can make before he can get attached to a new life. At points he makes attempts to get reattached to those he finds familiar like his mother or Daisy, but these inevitably never work out, despite his best efforts to settle in a life that can work for him. Within these stories, the "point" of the magical realism becomes clear as he has to value and cherish what he has before it goes away, just like all of us. It's poignant and touching, but not a masterpiece due to some scattered elements that slow down the film and don't really connect, especially the framing narrative. Visually, the effects portraying Benjamin Button may have been impressive at the time but they are very distracting and rubber-faced by today's standards. A strong 7/10 but could have been better with more streamlining and emotional connections between the vignettes.
