Like many of the best stories, this movie is about the redeeming and transforming power of love. From the moment of his birth, Benjamin Button, despite his unusual condition (aging backwards, and therefore being born looking a horrible, decaying old man) was surrounded by an unconditional and accepting sort of love.
From his adoptive mother Queenie, his childhood playmate Daisy (who would become the love of his life), his piano mentor -- a woman in the elderly home, his first employer, the tugboat captain, and many, many others.
It's also a meditation on how it is to live on borrowed time. One has to love completely and live fully. And, one also has to learn how to wait. Because, the movie says, life has a way of putting everything in its place at the best possible time. "We finally meet in the middle," Daisy says.
And finally, this movie tells us -- despite the ephemeral of nature of life, there are some things that do last.
Like the real kind of love. Love that compels people to teach you how to play music, or share with you a Shakespearean quote, or engage you in an intimate conversation in the middle of the night. The kind of love that sees you, with your wrinkly skin, thinning gray hair, and arthritis -- in other words, whatever imperfections and flaws you might have -- and still manage to look at you, like you are the most beautiful person in the world.
From his adoptive mother Queenie, his childhood playmate Daisy (who would become the love of his life), his piano mentor -- a woman in the elderly home, his first employer, the tugboat captain, and many, many others.
It's also a meditation on how it is to live on borrowed time. One has to love completely and live fully. And, one also has to learn how to wait. Because, the movie says, life has a way of putting everything in its place at the best possible time. "We finally meet in the middle," Daisy says.
And finally, this movie tells us -- despite the ephemeral of nature of life, there are some things that do last.
Like the real kind of love. Love that compels people to teach you how to play music, or share with you a Shakespearean quote, or engage you in an intimate conversation in the middle of the night. The kind of love that sees you, with your wrinkly skin, thinning gray hair, and arthritis -- in other words, whatever imperfections and flaws you might have -- and still manage to look at you, like you are the most beautiful person in the world.
