The Curious Curse of Benjamin Button 本杰明巴顿奇事/返老还童

The Curious Curse of Benjamin Button(返老还童)is a 2008 fantasy film directed by David Fincher. The film is loosely based on the 1922 short story of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This sweeping film follows the hero's unusual life into the 21st century as he experiences joy and sadness, loves lost and found, and the meaning of timelessness. The film also received many nominations and awards.

Directed by: David Fincher

Produced by: Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, Cean Chaffin

Written by Eric Roth, Robin Swicord

Music by: Alexandre Desplat

Cinematography Claudio Miranda

Editing by: Kirk Baxter, Angus Wall

Studio: Kennedy/Marshall

Distributed by: Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros.

Release date: December 25, 2008

Running time: 165 min.

Country: United States

Language: English

Genre: Drama Fantasy Mystery Romance

Brad Pitt as Benjamin Button(adult)

Spencer Daniels as Benjamin Button(age 12)

Shiloh Jolie-Pitt as Benjamin Button(baby)

Cate Blanchett as Daisy Fuller(adult)

Elle Fanning as Daisy Fuller(age 6 )

Madisen Beaty as Daisy Fuller(age 11)

Taraji P. Henson as Queenie

Julia Ormond as Caroline Fuller

Jason Flemyng as Thomas Button

Jared Harris as Captain Mike

Elias Koteas as Monsieur Gateau

Ed Metzger as Theodore Roosevelt

Phyllis Somerville as Grandma Fuller

Josh Stewart as Pleasant Curtis

Tilda Swinton as Elizabeth Abbott

Bianca Chiminello as Daisy's Friend

Rampai Mohadi as Ngunda Oti

Edith Ivey as Mrs. Maple

Tim Harvey as Soda Jerk

The film opens up with a tight close up of a very old woman, Daisy (Cate Blanchett)on her deathbed in the hospital. Theres a terrible storm raging outside the window. Daisy tells her daughter, Caroline (Julia Ormond), the story of a blind clockmaker named Gateau who was commissioned to create a clock to hang in the New Orleans train station. After receiving news of his only son's death in World War I, he continued work on his clock, but intentionally designed it to run backward, in the hope that it would bring back those who died in the war. After her story, Daisy asks Caroline to read aloud from a diary containing photographs and postcards written by Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt).

On November 11, 1918, just as the people of New Orleans are celebrating the end of the Great War, a baby boy is born with the appearance and physical maladies of a very elderly man. The baby's mother dies shortly after giving birth, and the father, Thomas Button (Jason Flemyng), abandons the infant on the porch of a nursing home. A young black couple who work at the nursing home, find the baby. The woman Queenie, who is unable to conceive, decides to take the baby in as her own and names the baby Benjamin.

Queenie takes Benjamin to a Christian faith healing service where Benjamin rises from his wheelchair and walks for the first time. In 1930, while still appearing to be seventy-three, Benjamin meets six-year-old Daisy (Elle Fanning), whose grandmother lives in the nursing home. The children play together and listen to Daisy's grandmother read from a storybook. As Benjamin gets younger, he accepts work at on the docks of New Orleans for Captain Mike (Jared Harris). Benjamin also meets Thomas Button, who does not reveal that he is Benjamin's father. In 1936, Benjamin leaves New Orleans with the tugboat crew for a long-term work engagement. While in the Russian port city of Murmansk, he begins an affair with the older, married Elizabeth Abbott (Tilda Swinton).

While in Russia, the tugboat crew hear of the Pearl Harbor attack. Captain Mike tells his crew that his tugboat has been commissioned into the United States Navy. They work through the war hauling crippled ships until one night, when they come upon an allied transport that had been torpedoed and sunk by a U-boat. They are able to ram and sink the U-boat when it surfaces, but the ship is critically damaged. Benjamin and one other crew member are the only survivors.

In 1945, Benjamin returns to New Orleans, and learns that the twenty-one-year-old Daisy has become a successful dancer in New York City. Benjamin crosses paths with Thomas Button again. Thomas, who is dying, reveals he is his father. Thomas wills Benjamin his house, his button factory and other possessions before he dies.

Benjamin later travels to New York to meet Daisy at a performance, and finds Daisy has fallen in love with a fellow dancer. Daisy's dance career is ended in 1957 in Paris when she is hit by a taxi cab that breaks her leg. When Benjamin goes to see her, Daisy is amazed at his youthful appearance, but frustrated at her own injuries; she turns him away by telling Benjamin to stay out of her life. In 1962, Daisy returns to New Orleans and reunites with Benjamin. Now the same physical age, they fall in love and get an apartment together.

Queenie dies and Daisy becomes pregnant. Daisy gives birth to a girl, Caroline. Benjamin, believing he cannot be a father figure to his daughter due to his reverse aging, sells his belongings, and leaves the proceeds to Daisy and Caroline. He travels to India. Benjamin returns to Daisy in 1980. Daisy is now re-married. Daisy introduces Benjamin to her husband, and Caroline as a long-time family friend. Daisy and Benjamin then meet privately in Benjamin's hotel where they share their passion for each other, but decide to remain apart. Benjamin departs again.

In 1991, Daisy receives a phone call from social workers. They inform her that they found Benjamin, now a young twelve year old, living in a condemned building. The social workers believe that he has dementia as he cannot remember much of his past. Daisy moves into the nursing home where Benjamin grew up and takes care of him as he becomes increasingly younger.

In 2002, Mr. Gateau's old clock is removed from the train station. Shortly afterward, Benjamin, who is now physically an infant, dies in Daisy's arms. Fully spent by this story, Daisy and her daughter share a sense of relief and closure that comes with the revelation of long-hidden truths. While Hurricane Katrina is getting dangerously near the hospital and soon diverts Carolines attention away from her mother. Daisy looks to the window and sees a hummingbird approach and then fly away into the storm. Finally she dies in her bed. The film ends with the hurricane's waters washing into a storeroom where sits the old clock, still ticking backwards.

In May 2005, actors Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett entered negotiations to star in the film as Benjamin Button and Daisy. Rachel Weisz was considered for the role of Daisy, but turned down because of scheduling conflicts with the different filming dates of the film. In September 2006, actors Tilda Swinton, Jason Flemyng, and Taraji P. Henson entered negotiations to be cast into the film. The following October, with production yet to begin, actress Julia Ormond was cast as Daisy's daughter, to whom Blanchett's character tells the story of her love affair with Benjamin Button.

Producer Ray Stark bought the film rights to do The Curious Case of Benjamin Button in the mid-1980's, and it was optioned by Universal Pictures. The first choice to direct it was Frank Oz, with Martin Short attached for the title role, but Oz couldn't work out how to make the story work. The film was optioned in 1991 by Steven Spielberg, with Tom Cruise attached for the lead role. But, Spielberg left the project to direct Jurassic Park and Schindler's List. Stark eventually sold the rights to producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall, who took the film to Paramount Pictures, with Universal Pictures still on as a co-production partner.

By summer 1994, Maryland Film Office chief Jack Gerbes was approached with the possibility of making the film in Baltimore. In June 2003, director Gary Ross entered final negotiations to helm the project based on a new draft penned by screenwriter Eric Roth. In May 2004, Warner Bros. Pictures and Paramount Pictures joined to co-finance the project, with Paramount Pictures marketing the film in foreign territories and Warner Bros. handling domestic distribution. In the same month, director David Fincher entered negotiations to replace Ross in directing the film.

New Orleans, Louisiana and the surrounding area was chosen as the filming location for the story to take advantage of the state's production incentives, and shooting was slated to begin in October 2006. Filming of Benjamin Button began on November 6, 2006 in New Orleans. In January 2007, Blanchett joined the shoot. Fincher praised the ease of accessibility to rural and urban sets in New Orleans and said that the recovery from Hurricane Katrina did not serve as an atypical hindrance to production. In March 2007, production moved to Los Angeles for two more months of filming.

Principal photography was targeted to last a total of 150 days. Additional time was needed in post-production to create the visual effects for the metamorphosis of Brad Pitt's character to the infant stage. The director used a camera system called Contour, developed by Steve Perlman, to capture facial deformation data from live-action performances. Overall production was finished in September 2007. The movie props were donated to the victims of Hurricane Katrina in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans.

The score to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was written by French composer Alexandre Desplat, who recorded his score with an 87-piece ensemble of the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Sony Scoring Stage. The choir singing in the film's first trailer is Libera, a group of boys from South London. The international trailer contains the song "A Moment of Greatness" by Immediate Music. There are also songs in the film shared with "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"(an album of Alison Krauss) including "Didn't Leave Nobody But the Baby" and "I'll Fly Away", from a different recording. The piano piece that Benjamin learns and which is reprised at the end of the film is Bethena: A Concert Waltz by Scott Joplin.

In the wharf scene when Benjamin joins the tugboat crew, two bridges are visible in the background. This event is prior to World War II. The first of these bridges was constructed beginning in 1954 and opened in 1958. The second was begun in 1981 and opened in 1988. Neither was there prior to World War II.

When Thomas Button puts newborn Benjamin on the steps of the nursing home he leaves some bills of cash inside the baby blanket, but in the next scene when Queenie pulls back the blanket the money has disappeared. Since the cash was placed inside the fold of the blanket where Benjamin's face is, the bills should have been clearly visible or at least have dropped out of the blanket when Queenie exposes the baby's face.

The reflection of camera and crew in a red car as the camera follows Dasiy as she walks out and down the street of the old peoples home.

Benjamin Button: For what it's worth: it's never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There's no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.

Daisy: You're so young.
Benjamin Button: Only on the outside.
Daisy(Age 7): Are you sick?
Benjamin Button: They said I was gonna die soon but, maybe not.
Daisy(Age 7): You're odd.
Benjamin Button: I was thinking how nothing lasts, and what a shame that is.
Daisy: Some things last.
Benjamin Button: Your life is defined by its opportunities... even the ones you miss.
Daisy: Would you still love me if I were old and saggy?
Benjamin Button: Would you still love ME if I were young and had acne? When I'm afraid of what's under the bed? Or if I end up wetting the bed?

The film has received mostly positive reviews.

"It's been said that the unexamined life is not worth living. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button suggests an addendum: a life lived backwards can be far more enriching. A magical and moving account of a man living his life resoundingly in reverse" and "moviemaking at its best."

—Peter Howell of The Toronto Star

"superbly made and winningly acted by Brad Pitt in his most impressive outing to date. Cinematography wonderfully marries a palette of subdued earthern colors with the necessary CGI and other visual effects that place one in a magical past."

—Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter

"Richly satisfying serving of deep-dish Hollywood storytelling."

—Todd McCarthy of Variety

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a film unlike any I've ever seen and probably ever will. A true epic that left me utterly speechless. It accomplished so much through such simplicity. Everything was top notch from the elegant directing to the subtly wonderful performances down to the magical score.

This visually and emotionally rich movie recalls the life of a very peculiar man born in the early 20th century who ages backwards. His tale unfolds through a diary read by the daughter of his love, Daisy. Throughout life he goes through the same things we do, growing up and eventually growing old. He's a thoughtful observer, discovering life from all different angles.

Academy Awards                                                                                   

Best Picture
Best Director. David Fincher
Best Actor, Brad Pitt
Best Supporting Actress, Taraji P. Henson
Best Adapted Screenplay, Eric Roth
Best Film Editing, Kirk Baxter Angus Wall
Best Cinematography, Claudio Miranda
Best Costume Design Jacqueline West
Best Original Score Alexandre Desplat
Best Sound Mixing

British Academy Film Awards

Best Film
Best Director, David Fincher
Best Adapted Screenplay, Eric Roth
Best Leading Actor, Brad Pitt
Best Costume Design
Best Music, Alexandre Desplat
Best Cinematography, Claudio Miranda
Best Editing

Chicago Film Critics Association

Best Picture
Best Director, David Fincher
Best Screenplay, Adapted, Eric Roth
Best Cinematography, Claudio Miranda
Best Original Score, Alexandre Desplat

Golden Globe Awards

Best Motion Picture
Best Actor, Brad Pitt
Best Director, David Fincher
Best Screenplay, Eric Roth
Best Original Score, Alexandre Desplat

Academy Awards

Best Art Direction
Best Makeup
Best Visual Effects

Austin Film Critics Association

Best Supporting Actress, Taraji P. Henson

British Academy Film Awards

Best Makeup & Hair
Best Production Design
Best Visual Effects

Central Ohio Film Critics Association Awards

Best Score, Alexandre Desplat

Houston Film Critics Society Awards

Best Picture
Best Cinematography, Claudio Miranda

Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards

Best Art Direction
Best Cinematography, Claudio Miranda
Best Costume Design, Jacqueline West

No.1, Rex Reed, The New York Observer
No.1, Michael Sragow, The Baltimore Sun
No.1, Ben Lyons, At the Movies
No.3, Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal
No.3, Kirk Honeycutt, The Hollywood Reporter
No.5, Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter
No.5, Lou Lumenick, New York Pos
No.6, James Berardinelli, ReelViews
No.6, Kyle Smith, New York Post
No.6, Richard Corliss, TIME magazine