Starring: Cate Blanchett, Brad Pitt, Tilda Swinton, Julia Ormond, Taraji P. Henson, Jason Flemyng, Edith Ivey, Jared Harris, Mahershala Ali, Patrick Thomas O’Brien, Rampai Mohadi, Ted Manson
OUR RATING: ★★★★☆
Story:
Fantasy romantic drama directed by David Fincher, loosely based on the short story of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) follows Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt), who is born under unusual circumstances, and springs into being as an elderly man in a New Orleans nursing home and ages in reverse. Twelve years after his birth, he meets Daisy (Cate Blanchett). Though he has all sorts of unusual adventures over the course of his life, it is his relationship with Daisy, and the hope that they will come together at the right time, that drives Benjamin forward.
Our Favorite Quotes:
'For what it's worth, it's never too late, or, in my case, too early, to be whoever you want to be. There's no time limit. Start whenever you want. You can change or stay the same. There are no rules to this thing.' Share on X
Best Quotes
Caroline: [as Daisy is on her deathbed] Are you afraid?
Daisy: I’m curious. What comes next?
Man in Crowd: [1918, referring to the clock] It’s running backwards!
Monsieur Gateau: I made it that way so that perhaps the boys that we lost in the war might stand and come home again. Home to farm, work, have children. To live long, full lives. Perhaps my own son might come home again. I’m sorry if I’ve offended anybody. I hope you enjoy my clock.
Caroline: [from Benjamin’s diary] This is my last will and testament. I don’t have much to leave, few possessions, no money really. I will go out of this world the same way I came in, alone and with nothing. All I have is my story, and I’m writing it now while I still remember it. My name is Benjamin.
Benjamin Button: Benjamin Button. And I was born under unusual circumstances. The First World War had ended, and I’ve been told it was an especially good night to be born.
Benjamin Button: [referring to his mother, Caroline] She gave her life for me. And for that, I am forever grateful.
Queenie: [as she hold baby Benjamin in her arms] You are as ugly as an old pot, but you’re still a child of God.
Dr. Rose: I’ve never seen anything like it. Nearly blind from cataracts. I’m not sure if he can hear. His bones indicate severe arthritis. His skin has lost all elasticity. His hands and feet are ossified. He shows all the deterioration, the infirmities, not of a newborn, but of a man well in his eighties on the way to the grave.
Queenie: He’s dying?
Dr. Rose: His body is failing him before his life’s begun.
Dr. Rose: [referring to Benjamin] Where did he come from?
Queenie: My sister’s child. From Lafayette. She had an unfortunate adventure. The poor child, he got the worst of it. Come out white.
Dr. Rose: Queenie, some creatures aren’t meant to survive.
Queenie: No, this baby, he is a miracle. That’s for certain. Just not the kind of miracle one hopes to see.
Mrs. Horton: [as she looks at the newborn Benjamin] God in heaven. He looks just like my ex-husband.
'I will go out of this world the same way I came in, alone and with nothing. All I have is my story.' (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) Share on X
Queenie: Look, he’s prematurely old. Dr. Rose said he ain’t got much more time on this earth.
General Winston: Join the club.
Tizzy: [to Queenie, referring to Benjamin] Are you right out of your mind? I know you ain’t got all the parts it takes to make one of your own, but this ain’t yours to keep. It may not even be humankind.
Queenie: You never know what’s coming for you.
Benjamin Button: But I didn’t know I was a child. I thought I was like everyone else there. An old man in the twilight of his life.
'Everybody feels different about themselves, one way or another. But we're all going the same way. Just taking different roads to get there, that's all.' - Queenie (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) Share on X
Benjamin Button: Some days, I feel different than the day before.
Queenie: Everybody feels different about themselves, one way or another. But we’re all going the same way. Just taking different roads to get there, that’s all. You’re on your own road, Benjamin.
Benjamin Button: Some nights, I’d have to sleep alone. I didn’t mind. I would listen to the house breathing. All those people sleeping. I felt safe.
Benjamin Button: [reading from one of the labels on the cans] Mole Asses.
Tizzy: “Molasses”.
Benjamin Button: And death was a common visitor. People came and went. You always knew when someone left us. There was a silence in the house.
Benjamin Button: It was a wonderful place to grow up. I was with people who had shed all the inconsequences of earlier life. Left wondering about the weather, the temperature of a bath, the light at the end of a day. For everyone that died, someone would come to take their place.
'It's funny how sometimes that people we remember the least make the greatest impression on us.' - Benjamin Button Share on X
Benjamin Button: What’s it like living in a cage?
Ngunda Oti: It stinks.
Ngunda Oti: [to Benjamin] Plenty of time you’ll be alone. When you’re different like us, it’s going to be that way. But I’ll tell you a little secret. Fat people, skinny people, tall people, white people, they’re just as alone as we are. But they’re scared s**tless.
Benjamin Button: [referring to Daisy] It was Thanksgiving, 1930. I met the person who changed my life forever.
Daisy Age 7: It’s sad, don’t you think? Birds that can’t fly?
Ngunda Oti: I love birds that can’t fly. They are so delicious.
Daisy Age 7: That’s terrible.
'Don't let anyone tell you different. You got to do what you're meant to do.' - Captain Mike (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) Share on X
Benjamin Button: I’m not as old as I look.
Daisy Age 7: I thought so. You don’t seem like an old person. Like my grandma.
Benjamin Button: I’m not.
Daisy Age 7: Are you sick?
Benjamin Button: Well, I heard Mama and Tizzy whispering. They said I was going to die soon, but maybe not.
Daisy Age 7: You’re odd. You’re different than anybody I’ve ever met.
Queenie: [to Benjamin] You are a different child. A man-child. And, baby, people aren’t going to understand just how different you are.
Mr. Daws:Did I ever tell you I’ve been struck by lightning seven times? Once when I was repairing a leak on the roof. Once I was just crossing the road to get the mail.
Caroline: [to Daisy] Mom? Did you get that this Benjamin loved you from the first time that he saw you? Not many people experience that.
Benjamin Button: As hard as I try, I can’t remember her name. Mrs. Lawson, or Mrs. Hartford. Maybe it was Maple. It’s funny how sometimes that people we remember the least make the greatest impression on us.
'Our lives are defined by opportunities. Even the ones we miss.' - Benjamin Button Share on X
Mrs. Maple: [referring to playing the piano] It’s not about how well you play. It’s how you feel about what you’re playing.
Mr. Daws: Did I ever tell you I was struck by lightning seven times? Once when I was in the field, just tending to my cows.
Captain Mike: Can you still get it up?
Benjamin Button: I do every morning.
'There's something peaceful, even comforting knowing that the people you love are asleep in their beds where nothing can harm them.' - Benjamin Button Share on X
Captain Mike: Wait a minute now. You mean to say, you’ve been on this earth however many years, and you’ve never had a woman? Damn, that’s the saddest thing I ever heard in my life. Never?
Benjamin Button: Nope.
Captain Mike: Then by Jesus, you are coming with me.
Captain Mike: [telling the story about his father] He says, “Who the hell do you think you are? What the hell do you think you can do?” So I tell him. “Well, if you’re asking, I want to be an artist.” He laughs. “An artist? God meant for you to work a tugboat, just like me. And that’s exactly what you’re going to do.” Well, I turned myself into an artist. A tattoo artist! I put on every one of these myself. You have to skin me alive to take my art away from me now. When I’m dead, I’m going to send him my arm. That one.
'You can be as mad as a dog at the way things went. You could swear, curse the fates. But when it comes to the end, you have to let go.' - Captain Mike (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) Share on X
Captain Mike: [to Benjamin] Don’t let anyone tell you different. You got to do what you’re meant to do. And I happen to be a goddamned artist.
Benjamin Button: Well, I was born with some form of disease.
Thomas Button: What kind of disease?
Benjamin Button: I was born old.
Thomas Button: I’m sorry.
Benjamin Button: No need to be. There’s nothing wrong with old age.
'It's a funny thing about coming home. Looks the same, smells the same, feels the same. You realize what's changed is you.' - Benjamin Button Share on X
Benjamin Button:[referring to Daisy] Growing up’s a funny thing. Sneaks up on you. One person is there, then suddenly somebody else has taken her place. She wasn’t all elbows and knees anymore.
Benjamin Button: What if I told you that I wasn’t getting older, but I was getting younger than everybody else?
Mrs. Maple: Well, I’d feel very sorry for you, to have to see everybody you love die before you do. That’s an awful responsibility.
Benjamin Button: I had never thought about life or death that way before.
'We're meant to lose the people we love. How else would we know how important they are to us.' - Mrs. Maple (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) Share on X
Daisy Age 10: Where you going?
Benjamin Button: Off to sea. I’ll send you a postcard.
Daisy Age 10: From everywhere. Write me a postcard from everywhere.
Captain Mike: How is it when you showed up you were no bigger than a bollard with one foot in the grave, but now, either I drink a hell of a lot more than I think I do, or you sprouted? What’s your secret?
Benjamin Button: Well, Captain, you do drink a lot.
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