Directed by David Fincher
Rated PG-13
(Three stars)

Benjamin Button was born old, literally.

“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” the story of a boy who came into the world with a body already ravaged with the infirmities of age, opens with a touching piece of irony. His father is so repelled by the boy’s appearance that he abandons him, unwittingly, at an old age home.

Benjamin is given the first gift of his unusual life: camouflage. Tucked in with a group of seniors passing through the home in their last, fading stage of life, Benjamin doesn’t attract much notice as his body mysteriously grows younger. “God in heaven,” exclaims one old woman when she first lays eyes on baby Benjamin, “he looks just like my ex-husband!”

Of course, Benjamin has a couple of other things going for him: the unflinching love of his adoptive mother, Queenie (Taraji Henson), and the fact that he is slowly transforming into Brad Pitt. This may be one of the most literal spins on the ugly duckling story to grace the silver screen and the conceit works brilliantly, partly because Pitt’s unearthly good looks are as compelling to wait for as they are to watch.

At the home, Benjamin meets a young girl, Daisy (Elle Fanning) who comes to visit her grandmother. The two become fast friends and, as Daisy grows into the stunningly beautiful Cate Blanchett, eventually lovers.

In many ways, this story about genetics gone awry is also a tale of happy genetic determinism. Pitt and Blanchett make one of the most visually pleasing couples in film.

“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” is an amalgam of two stories, one about a life running in reverse and the second about two lovers whose lives intersect but never quite find the same course. In many ways it is a remake of “Forrest Gump” without the history lesson.

Like Forrest, Benjamin is a man of unusual innocence tempered by a deep bedrock of character. And like Forrest, Benjamin benefits from an impressive streak of kismet until it comes to love.

The film shares another quality with “Forrest Gump;” it tells its story as a hazily charming cartoon. “Benjamin Button” wants to touch the heartstrings but it is afraid of the truly wrenching pain of the heart. The characters of the movie are colorful but for the most part superficial.

Benjamin moves through a world that is beautifully art directed but carefully scrubbed clean of the broken pieces that make up a real life. For much of the film I thought the best scene was a shot of Tilda Swinton ascending out of view in an old cage-style elevator in a Moscow hotel. Swinton wears a fur coat and 1930’s style hat that hides her eyes in shadow, leaving her blood-red lipstick and irrepressible star-quality to light up the screen. It was everything I thought this film was about: an unerring instinct for atmosphere that leaves the talents of an incredible cast simmering in the background of this charming but cautious tale. But I was wrong.

A short while later the film’s defining scene came into view and was almost derailed by its own artistry. Daisy and Benjamin come together after a long absence. Daisy is now into middle age and Benjamin looks to be in his late teens.

The sight of Benjamin is jaw dropping. He is a perfect rendering of Brad Pitt from “Thelma & Louise.” The makeup is so perfect that it’s a little creepy and you may have a hard time getting back into the scene (If anyone had any doubts about the film’s Oscar for best makeup, this scene will lay it to rest).

But the acting is so good that you soon take your attention off the makeup and back onto the tragedy it communicates. Benjamin’s strange dance with fate has destroyed them as lovers. They can’t grow old together. This scene finally has a true ache to it that is worthy of the acting talent invested in the film.

This moment of authenticity flashes across the screen and then is gone, taking with it the film’s sense of purpose.

Director David Fincher has a better feel for art direction than story. He muddles through the final scenes of the film out of a sense of obligation. He knows we are curious about how Benjamin will finally meet his end, propelled by heartless forces into infancy. But the momentum is gone and in the end the story does what Benjamin can’t: it just grows old.