“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” inspired by the premise of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story, tells a meditative fairy tale hinged on the existential curiousness of its title character who lives life in reverse, aging backwards physically and regressing mentally, doomed to live in contrast with those around him. David Fincher makes “Benjamin Button” his own by taking just the right amount of whimsy and gimmick from his source material and weaves it into a moving, sweeping Hollywood production that, while flawed, soars in ambition and enchants in a way grand-scoped holiday season films seem to have forgotten how to.

Under the restrained eye of a director known for his cold detachment, thankfully absent here, what is a whimsical series of romantic observations blossoms into something far more profound; an invitation to contemplate and philosophize (instead of intellectualise) the contradictions that plague Benjamin Button’s plight. Like most fables, the unjust weight of analysis is sure to spoil the delicately layered momentum and emotional undercurrents that meander throughout Benjamin Button’s almost three-hour long running time. When those currents finally meet up in the film’s final scene, the poignancy therein is intoxicating, and rather startling.

“Benjamin Button” has been compared to numerous films – the result of pointless intellectualizing – and most specifically, “Forrest Gump,” which was also written by Eric Roth. Structurally there are parallels, in which lie a solid amount of this film’s weaknesses. Nevertheless, Fincher is able to overcome such slight misfortunes by taking the notions of time and change and reflects them through the prism that is Benjamin Button, as played by Brad Pitt.

By doing so, the thematic threads that make up this magical whole build and impact upon one another, resulting in a flood of ideas and probing insights into life, death and the changes in between that can only be truly appreciated when the film is meshed into the sum of its parts. Speaking of its parts, one of the most resonant aspects of its genius is that “Benjamin Button” can be so many things at once – a love story, a biography, a character study and a fantastical technical achievement – without losing sight of its melancholy human focus.

If nothing else, “Benjamin Button” is a technical masterwork in which the computer-aided effects simply guide and add to the story without drawing attention to themselves. Considering how awesome they truly are, its astounding that they never distract from the humanity of the film. The same could be said for Alexandre Desplat’s haunting yet subtle score, which adds just enough poignant enhancement – and then backs off.

We are transported from the 21st century, in New Orleans circa ’05 as Hurricane Katrina ominously builds in force and momentum, into the 20th by means of a rather familiar framing device – a journal-aided flashback. Daisy (Cate Blanchett, adorning hours of seamless makeup artistry) lies on her deathbed at the age of 80, where her frantic daughter Caroline (Julia Armond) reads aloud the diary that belonged to Benjamin Button, eventually tracing back to a time when they both belonged to one another.

Over time, the story spans almost eight decades and only gradually do the mysteries reveal themselves in what is a relatively simple, unsentimental tale of life, love, loss and death and how, when the elements of one’s existence aligns, one ought to make the most of the time they have regardless of its chronological normalcy.

Born in 1918, Benjamin is an old man encased in the body of a wrinkled infant, suffering from all the typical afflictions that arise with old age. Misshapen and near monstrous, he is ironically abandoned on the doorstep of an old age home where he is rescued by Queenie (Taraji P. Henson) whom he will call “mama” for the rest of their lives. As the seasons change and the years drift by, instead of dying, Benjamin begins growing younger – something bizarre that, oddly, doesn’t ring the alarms of concern for those around him.

Episodic in structure the film is nothing short of a series of vignettes bound by premise, not all of which are especially well-developed, in which Benjamin grows up but physically de-ages, leaves home, becomes a sailor aboard a tugboat, has a Russian affair with Tilda Swinton, takes part in World War II, and so on, until he eventually catches up with the love of his life whom he met when she was a luminous little girl, Daisy.

Without the assistance of time on their sides, each intersect and cross paths with one another throughout their lives at moments where making their mutual attraction more than that seems impossible. That recurring theme highlights just how fragile time and judgment thereof is and how so much as a hint of a miscalculation can set off a ripple effect that lasts an entire lifetime.

Brad Pitt, while competent, almost completely misses the mark in terms of shading in the subtleties of his character at the various stages of his backwards life path. His lack of onscreen habitation or rather, the fact that he does not distract from his character by playing a mystified version of his real life persona is noteworthy, but it isn’t enough to warrant more than a pat on the back.

While a young boy trapped in the body of an ailed octogenarian, Pitt doesn’t play him as such, he rather plays him as being simply old. The same goes for the latter stages of his performance where he grows physically younger, but he forgets that the soul that lies within his fresh casing is very much an old one.

While such gripes are relatively minor, I cant help but feel that if Pitt had focused slightly more on fine tuning the complexities of his character and not relying too heavily on the films technical and makeup excellence to do all the work, the entire set up of Benjamin’s existence might have been even easier to stomach. Of course, like with the majority of misunderstood films this year, the film is not a study of Benjamin, but he is rather a filter through which we become aware of those around him, and of life itself.

It is ironic that, to me, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” strikes similar thematic chords as “Synecdoche, New York” does, and each boast an eclectic array of female performers supporting and heightening the male character at each film’s centre. An obvious standout is Taraji P. Henson who, with limited screen time, ignites a flow of maternal warmth in the heart of “Benjamin Button” that, even in her absence, one can still feel. Cate Blanchett meticulously glides through varies stages of Daisy’s life – from twentysomething selfishness, to middle-age comfort and then onto her deathbed, instilling strand after strand of nuanced punctuation that renders hers the film’s truest performance, even though as the object of Benjamin’s lust before World War II interrupts, Tilda Swinton has rarely been so affecting.

Without being manipulative, “Benjamin Button” is deeply moving, and remains elegant while being so, without becoming cold or distant – for me, anyway. Fincher isn’t one to assure audience comfort by opening up the emotional floodgates and simplifying his grasp of the mysticism of ordinary occurrences and that may lead to some (mistakenly) assuming his latest film to be denser than it is. Fincher’s restraint is what keeps “Benjamin Button” flowing smoothly even when, by logic, it should not.

A star-driven, teary-eyed, meditative spectacle, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” is Fincher’s most nakedly emotive film to date which, by nature, renders it more susceptible to cynical backlash and misunderstanding by those who can’t help but overlook the depth of his vision. For those who can peel away the layers upon layers that gel into a magisterial fable and can still appreciate it as an imperfect whole, the rewards are plentiful. It’s most potent mediation of all is that life is a tidal force to which mere mortals, curious or not, can’t help but swim against until the elements of time, age and love align to offer a new beginning, even at the end of a life. The magic lies in noticing when that moment occurs, and making it count.

Fatac Rating: ****

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Directed by David Fincher. Written by Eric Roth based on the short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Starring: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Taraji P. Henson, Julia Ormond, Jason Flemyng, Mahershalalhashbaz Ali, Jared Harris, Elias Koteas, Phyllis Sommerville, Tilda Swinton, Elle Fanning and Madisen Beaty. Running Time: 167 minutes. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.