The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. A 2008 movie. And like always I get to see it one year later when it goes on cable. I surely have mixed feelings about it. Not about the movie though. The movie is perfect. Perfect. Uniquely strange and perfect. Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett played their roles very well. In fact, every actor/actresses did their parts very well. Including the cast of children who played the different ages of Benjamin Button. I watched it by accident. Wait, I think I actually missed the movie on cable. We had the dvd. Last night was quite a restless one for me. The girls suddenly came down with high fever, both at the same hour. Sleep for us was impossible so Joel decided we'd watch a dvd.
Benjamin Button, of course. I have not seen Brad Pitt for the longest time and Cate Blanchett is simply my fave! Who could be more fitting to play the role of a ballerina. And then a part of me simply regretted that I watched. Until this moment I will never forget how Benjamin slowly grew younger and younger until he was an infant in Daisy's arms. That was a heart-wrenching scene. But I fell asleep just before the part where Benjamin's adoptive father died. I woke up at 3am when Ava started crying because of fever. Joel has fallen sleep too but the dvd was still going on. While trying to comfort Ava to get her back to sleep I took one look at the tv and was transfixed. Daisy has come home and had reunited with the younger Benjamin. She literally ran into his arms. Then came her taxi accident, the hospital, the recovery, Benjamin's travels, their 2nd reunion. The start of their wonderful lives together. The death of Queenie, sale of the big house, Daisy's self pity, recovery, her announcement of her pregnancy, Benjamin's dilemma. I surely started to shed a tear when he finally decided to give up all his possessions and leave the money to Daisy and their daughter and leave them on her 1st birthday. If I thought I would never see any heart-wrenching scene in the movie that would push the dagger deeper into my heart I was clearly wrong.
Benjamin Button's body was getting younger and younger but his mind was getting older and older.
Did you see the movie?
I cried when Daisy was called to look after a rebellious and forgetful adolescent Benjamin. I couldn't breath as I watched the scenes flashing before me. When Benjamin with an old mind of an old man was in a 5-year-old body. I clutched at my heart when Daisy was walking holding 2-year-old toddler Benjamin, stopped, leaned towards Benjamin who gave her a kiss. Watch the video above. Hold your hearts and tears at the 3:04 mark. That did my soul. Daisy on a rocking chair by the patio with baby Benjamin cradled snugly in her arms. Daisy with the newborn Benjamin by his crib...
"...for the last time he opened his eyes and looked at me. That was when I knew he knows who I am." --Daisy
...the last time the baby Benjamin stares at Daisy's eyes, closes his own and succumbs to death.
But we should not be sorry for Benjamin. He has, per se, lived his life to the fullest. He knew his daughter. He had left her a legacy in his diary. He sacrificed to give his daughter the kind of life and love that she deserves. He was taken in and loved unconditionally by Queenie. He traveled everywhere and saw everything. He died in the arms of the woman who loved and understood him deeply.
I know I should wish for a more happy ending, but that would have changed everything entirely. I'm still glad it went the way it did, strange as it already was. hehehe. I love the movie. It made me cry. I shouldn't have watched. Just should have turned the dvd off. I don't like movies that make me cry. But I love this one.
"...I hope you live a life you're proud of. And if you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again."
--Benjamin, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 2008
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