But it's his life-spanning romance with Daisy (Cate Blanchett), whom he's known since she was a little girl, that gives the film its emotional center. A talented ballet dancer who experiences great success on the New York stage, Daisy is far from a perfect match for Benjamin (one of the film's more refreshing aspects is that the two lovers aren't so obviously made for each other). But fate and happenstance keep bringing them together, until they finally surrender to their instincts.

Fincher takes his sweet time getting the story to this point (there's a wonderfully protracted sequence, a directorial tour de force, depicting the events leading up to an accident that could have been dispatched in a few seconds of screen time). And the steady pace pays off wondrously in the film's last hour. The older Benjamin gets, the handsomer and more striking he looks, but we're conscious of the wisdom and experience beneath that unwrinkled face, because the movie has taken the time to show us.

And as that face keeps getting younger, while everyone around him ages, the film achieves an uncommon level of tragic beauty. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a movie about the inevitability of death, but it is told from a perspective of peace and contentment, which renders it into a celebration of life and all its wonderful, horrible oddities.

Cast: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Taraji P. Henson, Julia Ormond, Jason Flemyng, Jared Harris, Tilda Swinton, Elias Koteas

Director: David Fincher

Screenwriter: Eric Roth. Based on the story by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Producers: Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, Cean Chaffin

A Paramount Pictures release. Running time: 167 minutes. Brief vulgar language, sexual situations, adult themes. Playing at area theaters.

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