The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 2008

Ben Lyons, At the Movies: The characters that come in and out of Benjamin's life are distinct, memorable, and wonderfully conceived. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: It's Fincher's picture, and his universe is one of exquisite fakery and frequent, elegant visual delight. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Benjamin Button is little more than Gump by way of Dorian Gray. It plays too safe when it should be letting its freak flag fly. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: It's too bad that I can barely remember the movie after only a week. Nothing lasts, indeed. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: The film quickly outgrows any sense of gimmickry and matures into a one-of-a-kind meditation on mortality, time's inexorable passage and the fleeting sweetness of love. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is that rare thing: a truly magical movie. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: Fincher's visual mastery and Pitt's charisma almost compensate for a gimmick in search of a meaning. The more time Fincher gives viewers with Button, the thinner the character grows. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: A curiosity, you might say. Read more

Sam Allis, Boston Globe: If this movie is uncharacteristically radiant (and, my, is it), then it's also aloof and unexpectedly ordinary. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button leaves you colder than it should, and it shouldn't leave you cold at all. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: A gravely beautiful drama about the mysteries of aging and death. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: Director David Fincher has turned out an overlong, Forrest Gumpian exercise in mannered whimsy. It's sentimental; it's episodic; it dawdles. Brad Pitt spends a good length of screen time drinking tea with Tilda Swinton. But it's also bewitching. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: With a running time of almost three slow-going hours, the movie definitely makes you feel as though you're aging forward. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: There's leisure to the storytelling, a splendor that captures the movie's celebratory but also melancholy ideas about our time on this mortal coil. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Initially intriguing and often dazzling, it ultimately drags on too long, with its wonder succumbing to frustration as the minutes drift by. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: An extravagantly ambitious movie that's easy to admire but a challenge to love. Read more

Laremy Legel, Film.com: See Benjamin Button. Why not? It's still better than most movies in the world. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: Fincher's film, based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story about a man who ages in reverse, is rambling and gorgeous -- perhaps a bit overlong and gooey in the midsection -- but one that leaves you with a lingering wistfulness. Read more

Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly: More than a love story, Button is a eulogy for the 20th Century Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: Button makes some powerful points about the precious commodities of love, happiness and time. Read more

David Ansen, Newsweek: Lyrical, original, misshapen and deeply felt, this is one flawed beauty of a movie. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: It's like a box of chocolates, but with hollow centers. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: It takes a world-class storyteller and a great yarn to rivet your attention for nearly three hours. This very classy, old-school movie -- employing cutting-edge technology that will make your eyes pop -- did it for me. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a monumental achievement -- not only one of the best films of the year, but one of the greatest films ever made. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Pitt is quite good in the lead even if it does take close to two hours for him to show up in a matinee idol form we've all come to know. It's an underplayed performance, nicely pitched against great actresses. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button puts a Hollywood sheen on a decidedly eccentric yarn. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Many may see this as a more grown-up version of Forrest Gump, but it feels to me like something from the pen of Charlie Kaufman, who enjoys playing with time and conventions in much the way Fincher and Roth do here. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Given the resources and talent here, quite a movie might have resulted. But it's so hard to care about this story. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: The lesson here is never to aim to make a great movie before locking in the framework for a good one. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: Fincher's magic can't transform him from the coldly dispassionate misanthropist of Se7en, Fight Club, and Zodiac into a sentimental humanist, and it can't turn Brad Pitt into the kind of actor who can carry a movie like this. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Fincher renders the era with a precise eye for atmosphere and physical detail. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: A film whose individual parts are more entrancing than the middlebrow whole. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: A magical and moving account of a man living his life resoundingly in reverse, very loosely based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald short tale from 1922, it delivers top-notch moviemaking in every department. Read more

David Fear, Time Out: Read more

Tom Huddlestone, Time Out: An epic, melancholic romance that employs a multi-generational cast and groundbreaking visual effects. It's a testament to Fincher's skill as a storyteller that the film actually works, albeit sporadically. Read more

Christopher Orr, The New Republic: Benjamin Button is a film of mood, not motion. At its best, it is evocative and affecting; at its worst, an exercise in sentimental portraiture. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: The film, ambitious if flawed, also is lyrical and melancholy as it tells the story of a man aging backward. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: A richly satisfying serving of deep-dish Hollywood storytelling. Read more

Scott Foundas, Village Voice: Mostly, the film is an orgy of excess, in which Fincher indulges his passion for luxuriant image-making, with little regard for whether the story merits (or can withstand) such grandiose treatment. Read more