[Jeff Chandler]

it boasts a running time of 176 minutes — fulfilling an indispensable criterion for artistic gravitas in recent years: nearly endless length.

Ain't it the truth?

[netmilsmom]

I detested Forrest Gump.

The idea of putting the main character into old films had been done before and so much better in “Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid.”

[BallyBill]

Sure sounds like a good movie and I've been a Brad Pitt fan since “A River Runs Through It”.

[zlala]

The t.v. show Mork did the same thing back in the 70’s. They were born old and got younger as they “aged”.

[Liberty Valance]

My wife wants to see Brad Pitt (again) so I guess we'll go to this one. I like weird movies anyway. ;o)

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

Sounds like the lib Pitt infused his politics into the movie, just as FSF did in much of his writing. Was there ever a worse ending and soapbox than the ending of This Side of Paradise when the hitchhiker proclaims his socialism to the wealthy guy who gives him a ride?. Though I've read all of FSF’s writings, I won't be reading them again looking for greater depth as I have with truly great literature, which continually ‘feeds’ me as I return to it every 5 or 10 years.

FSF and Pitt, to me, are both way overrated.

[shhrubbery!]

...a kindly African-American worker at the home, Queenie (in a marvelous performance by Taraji P. Henson), embraces Benjamin as one of God’s children — even as she observes that Lord has done something very “strange” in this case — and adopts him.

This kindly "African-American" is an invention of Pitt's also (in addition to the Hurricane Katrina storyline). She is not F. Scott Fitzgerald's character, at least.

I just read the first five chapters of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button --full text free online-- and there is NO "Queenie" anywhere in those chapters. Nor does Fitzgerald call anyone an "African-American" (now there's an anachronism).

Looks to me like another case of "The Magic Negro" as described by leftist LA Times writer David Ehrenstein. AKA The Numinous Negro, as identified by Rick Brookhiser of NRO earlier.

Does Hollywood make any movies anymore that don't have a "Magic Negro" in the storyline?

[CDB]

This concept is hundreds of years old. Didn’t Merlin—of the Arthurian legends—age backwards? Merlin didn’t have the aged appearance at birth of Benjamin Button, but Merlin did have the wisdom and experience of an old man when he was born.

[AnAmericanMother]

That ain't Pitt the Younger . . . THIS is Pitt the Younger:

[rintense]

Another pretentious ‘art’ piece that does a disservice to the original, which means, it and Pitt will likely win an oscar. Shameful.