(2008)

Submitted by Evil Ed

Short Version:
Daisy (Cate Blanchett) moves into the old age home to live out her final years and care for Benjamin Button as he regress to infancy. Benjamin dies cradled in her arms as an infant in the Spring of 2003. Daisy dies of old age in a New Orleans hospital as Hurricane Katrina comes ashore.

Long Version:
The film is a flashback as Caroline (Julia Ormond), the daughter of Daisy and Benjamin, reads Benjamin’s diary to Daisy as Daisy lives out her final hours in a New Orleans hospital bed during Hurricane Katrina. We learn that Benjamin (played by Brad Pitt – along with some remarkable make-up and special effects, as well as by several other actors) was born a tiny elderly man in New Orleans on November 11, 1918, was abandoned by his father after his mother died in childbirth, was taken in by Queenie (Taraji P. Henson) the caretaker of an old age home, met the child Daisy, who was the granddaughter of one of the residents and soon realized he was getting younger while everyone around him is getting older.

At 17, but physically a middle-aged man, he ships out on a tugboat, travels to Murmansk and has his first real relationship with Elizabeth Abbott (Tilda Swinton). The tugboat is destroyed in World War II, but manages to sink a U-Boat in the process, with Benjamin being the lone survivor. Daisy becomes a successful ballet dancer and travels the world. Benjamin returns to New Orleans and both lead separate lives until Daisy is hit by a taxi in France and has her right leg crushed.

Daisy returns to New Orleans and she and Benjamin have several happy years together. Benjamin leaves Daisy after Caroline is born, since he realizes that Daisy will not be able to care for them both as he gets younger. Daisy opens a dance studio and remarries as Benjamin travels the world. They meet and make love one more time when Benjamin returns to New Orleans many years later, but physically a young man in his early twenties.

Finally, Benjamin is discovered as a pre-pubescent homeless youngster with dementia by the police and Daisy is called when the cops find the diary in Benjamin’s backpack. Daisy moves into the old age home and lives out her remaining years as Benjamin regresses to infancy and he dies cradled in her arms.

As Hurricane Katrina washes ashore and drowns an old clock that was built to run backwards in the same year Benjamin was born, Daisy dies of old age in a New Orleans hospital.

“They say an old man is twice a child.” – Rosencrantz to Hamlet, Act II, Scene 2.