Oh Benjamin Button, how I love thee..

New movie. Staring Brad Pitt. For 3 hours. WHERE DO I SIGN UP?!

Then I realized, yo girl, you in Denmark now and shivvy is expensive. But whateva, it was Sofia's birthday today, and mine this weekend, so we decided to make our to a showing at 9pm. That cost 80 kroner, due to the 3 hour-ness of it. But...
WORTH EVERY PENNY!!!

Nikki had tried to convince me it was a snooze, but I refused to believe her, but do agree about the excellent makeup.

Ok, so if you haven't heard about this brilliant film, you should. I'm sure all the arsty-fartsies won't agree, but not only was it cinematographically beautiful in practically every scene, the story is complex and heart-wrenching, and the attention to detail impeccable. And when it's originally written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, who can say no?

**SPOILER ALERT!! DO NOT READ IF YOU INTEND TO WATCH THE FILM!!**

The film takes shape with a daughter at her mothers dying bedside, in the present, when the mother asks her to read from a diary, the diary of Benjamin Button.

The story starts with a blind clock maker who loses his son in a war, and unveils a clock that runs backward, hoping it will bring all the men, and especially his son, home from the dreaded war. This leads to the birth of Benjamin, who is born basically dying as an old man would in New Orleans in 1918. His mother dies during birth, and his father is so freaked out by the creepiest of all creepy babies (and I know about creepy babies...) and leaves him on the doorstep to a senior citizen home, where a young black woman who works there takes him in, mostly because she can't have children herself.

Benjamin obviously fits right in, being an old man, but really is young at heart, spirit, and mind, and only appears to be in his 80's. Throughout this time, people come in and out of his life, dying and then new older people showing up. He sees it as the way it is, until he meets 5 year old Claire (Cate Blanchett) who knows there is something about him, and they share an instant bond. He turns 17 and meets a ship captain who allows him to work on the boat despite his age, and actually runs into his father one night after his first time at a brothel, though he has no idea who the man is. Later, he decides its time to enter the world, and leaves on a fishing boat eventually to Russia, but writes Claire every chance he gets.

Once in Russia, he is staying at a hotel and has a steamy affair with a married British woman (Tilda Swinton) who eventually leaves him, and only a brief note behind, much like most of the people in his life. From then he and his ship mates head back to the states to fight in WWII, after the attack on Pearl Harbor. His boat is the only one to come upon a US ship hit by a Japanese submarine, killing all 1,300 men on board, then then the 6 or 7 men he is with, and he is the only survivor. After this, he heads home, back to the senior home, the only place he knows.

While he is at home, he meets his father again. He finds out the man is dying, but before he confesses who he is, and while Benjamin is angry, he forgives him by taking him to his favorite lake to watch the sunrise during his last days. He also gives Benjamin his life savings, and Button's Buttons, the company in his family for generations that flourished during the war, making him quite wealthy. While at his childhood home in New Orleans, Claire shows up there too, and they enjoy a romantic evening of her talking about her new life as a ballet dancer in NY and she attempts to seduce him, but he refuses, especially as he is still much older than she.

After awhile, he tries to chase her down in New York, but she is with another man, and then heads off to Paris for another professional ballet. One day, as the movie points out, a series of events that leads to a taxi hitting her, breaking her leg in 5 places and permanently ending her dancing career. Benjamin comes to Paris to be with her, but she still refuses him, not knowing how to handle his affection, and slight age problem.

Eventually, she comes around and shows up again in New Orleans. This time, they know they are meant for each other and don't fight it. They live together and Claire opens a dance studio, and they sail his boat around the world. But then, she gets pregnant and after one year he decides he is in no position to father a child while he continues to get younger. He leaves his fortune to them, and drives off on his motorcycle in the middle of the night. He lives like a vagabond, traveling the world and India in particular, with the knowledge of a wise old man but the youth and body of a young Brad Pitt. (Not a bad combo, in my opinion)

He consistently writes everything in his diary, and even comes back to visit Claire and see his 12 year old daughter. They still love each other, but it is obvious that things would have never worked. He continues to get younger, until one day Claire gets a call about a young boy who is suffering from some sort of dementia, and is brought back to his same childhood home. Claire comes to visit everyday before eventually moving in with him, and you watch as she enters her 70's while he becomes a toddler, then an infant, and then dies in her arms. The end shows a hurricane that is ripping through present time while the woman dies in the hospital. The woman is Claire, and her daughter is reading her fathers diary about a life she never knew existed. One of the last scenes shows water flooding a basement in which the backwards clock lies, slowly consumed by rushing water.

The only word for this film is...EPIC. It was amazing, and I encourage everyone to see it. Not only a love story that lasts generations, but a way to think about the ways that life takes us and leaves us behind, but thats just the way it goes.