button

Along the way you bump into people who make a dent on your life. Some people get struck by lightning. Some are born to sit by a river. Some have an ear for music. Some are artists. Some swim the English Channel. Some know buttons. Some know Shakespeare. Some are mothers. And some people can dance.

- Benjamin Button

i almost completely forgot to watch this movie, i guess another sign of aging! normally, immediately after buying any dvd from mai-mai, i'd have it nailed asap. but this one, counted weeks before being played. anyhow...

glad that i watched it. although it was really long (the movie's main negative point according to critics), i enjoyed every minute of it. the thought of living your life backwards, instead of growing old as years pass, you get younger and younger, is thought-provoking and was beautifully tracked in the movie. while it's an epic in its own right, the movie was simple, yet poses serious questions on life and death. what kept me glued to this is the feeling that while many always say that you should pursue whatever you want in life, there comes a moment that would just prevent you from doing so... like when benjamin decided to leave his family to live alone, as he can't allow the fact that daisy would take care of two babies in the near future. up to this moment, i can still imagine that particular scene... brad pitt's emotionless face and cate blanchett's luminous questioning of "where are you going and why". all in all, it's all about the celebration of life. life as a sum of all experiences, good or bad choices, luck, fate, missed chances, opportunities taken, love, family and the sense of being one's self.

scenes in the 20s, 30s and 40s were impeccably mounted. the film's visual effects and other technical aspects were superb. cate blanchett was stunning and brad pitt was ok, hehehe! i would've wanted to see other actors like daniel day lewis or clive owen in the title role, but i guess brad pitt's good looks help the movie better in presenting a younger version of him. although the way daisy told caroline about her real father was a throwback to cliche pinoy-style storytelling, the movie was successful in enveloping the third main character of the movie, the city of new orleans.