Benjamin Button: Developmental Review

Benjamin Button: Developmental Movie Review

Benjamin Button, making its debut in 2008, was a film based loosely on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s story. However, in director David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, the upturning of the aging process does not illustrate a charming alternate reality, but one of complication, completely depriving an individual of the most meaningful episodes of development. Though the most constant of life’s quandaries is fundamentally altered, Benjamin’s story is still one of human development, moving from birth to death with special attention to middle age, the point in life, no matter its sequence or direction, where an individual must reflect on where they have been and where they are going, cherishing his or her thus-far achievements or mourning their loss. The experiences that result from Benjamin’s aging process are driven heavily by appearance, with the age Benjamin’s outward appearance suggests acting the driving influence in how he is treated and perceived by others. His life is one of complication and reflection, a theoretical exploration of the trials and blessings of aging. In the simplest of terms, Benjamin’s story is that of the development of a social outcast, the attempts and ultimate inability of an individual to reconcile their differences to belong with those who can be called “normal.” A native of New Orleans, Benjamin Button is in his eighties, as an infant, at the end of World War I and proceeds to live his life in reverse as he gets younger and younger as the years progress. The reversal of the aging process provides an interesting reflection on the path one takes through life. By utilizing this unusual unfolding of events, the viewer sees the impact of certain exercises of judgment, and then the viewer sees what action Button took to place him in the time sequence that occurs. The main character experiences life, love, loss, and learns to understand the true meaning of life and endurance....