F. Scott Fitzgerald and David Fincher—the former was the master chronicler of America’s Jazz Age in all its profligate glory, the latter has made a new American pastime out of filming yuppies punching each other. Hemingway described Fitzgerald’s talent as being as “natural as the pattern that was made by the dust on a butterfly’s wings”; Fincher’s self-described talent is in “making movies that can scar.”

So what happens when you put the two together? “Benjamin Button,” the curious Fincher movie inspired by the Fitzgerald short story about a man (Pitt) born as an elderly infant who slowly ages backwards, and the lifelong love he has for a normal woman named Daisy (Blanchett). We follow the two through eight decades in New Orleans, from the end of the first World War through to Hurricane Katrina, watching the people, places and zeitgeist change along the way.

Fincher has said he believes there are only two real styles of filmmaking: the “Spielberg way,” and the “Kubrick way”—each has its own merits and drawbacks, with one obviously more commercial than the other. And after the controversy behind his previous film “Fight Club,” and the box-office failure of the almost obsessive-compulsive “Zodiac,” it’s little surprise he went with big, glossy Spielberg for “Button.” And it works.
The film combines emotional storytelling with technical magic to create an extraordinary and beautiful experience that touches on themes of love, memory and the nature of time. The only shortcoming is the length, which is exacerbated by the annoying flashback framing device. But despite this oft-overused cliché, I left the cinema very surprised and a bit confused, a reaction one often gets to life itself. But after the movie sinks in, you only remember the good—it’s a film that stays with you, and one that almost makes you nostalgic to remember.

4 Stars by Pavan Shamdasani.

Directed by David Fincher. Starring Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Jason Flemyng, Tilda Swinton. 166 Minutes.