The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

A good friend of mine Ramiro Medrano gave me, for my birthday, two tickets to the Chicago premier (private screening) of Brad Pitt’s new movie, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The screening was at 8pm on my birthday (the 16th), and lucky for me the weather was horrible that day. Therefore due to inclimate weather, my wife unfortunately couldn’t go to work that day….bummer. :)

We had a great time hanging out, and capped of the night with this extravagant event. I didn’t really know what to expect with the movie. Yes, it has gotten some really good reviews—but from my experience “movie reviewers” only love movies that I generally can't stand. So my hopes weren’t too high for this one.

But I have to tell you that I was gripped every single second of its 2 ½ hours. I’ll admit it, by the end of the movie I was bawling like a baby. In fact, I could hardly find our car in the parking garage because I was crying so hard. I don’t know if any of you dudes out there have ever seen The Notebook—well it was kind of like that (and yes, I cried like a baby at the end of that one too). The quick summary is that Benjamin ages in reverse of the average human. That’s all I’m going to give.

I don’t know who thinks of movie plots, but most of them seem to be copy-cat plots with some little changes here or there. Benjamin Button was the most original thing I’ve ever seen (this movie was adapted from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book of the same name written in 1922). I felt like I was getting punched in the gut over and over again as the movie went on—and yet they were able to inject the perfect amount of humor at just the right spots when you thought you couldn’t take any more emotional pull.

Let me just say that this movie impacted me a GREAT DEAL. It was a thoughtful exposé on the continuum (and constantly moving ways) of life, death and fate (or the not-so-subtle undertow of the unique ways God clearly) weaves lives together independent and interdependent of each other. The will to continue living—and the strength to start over again when life doesn’t work out—was brought out in this movie more then any other I think I have ever seen.

If you’re brave enough, you should see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. But before you do, stock up on Kleenex and be sure your emotions are at 100% charged, because you’re going to use every single one of them from the first minute to the last.

Much love.
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