Z/Web

My original expectations were high, but they lowered when I heard some reviews and comments, and when I saw the nearly three hour running time. But you know what? I liked this. It is a little long, but it generally holds your interest and the characters are compelling enough you want to find out what is going to happen to them. I read the F. Scott Fitzgerald short story this is based on and the story’s completely different. In the story the baby can talk right out of the womb, which is farfetched (not that living life in reverse is that realistic either, but that’s a premise you buy for the sake of the story). In the film the baby is given away to a black nurse who raises Benjamin as her own, and I liked the way he’s raised in an old folks home, which fits him well, as he doesn’t even realize he’s different from all the old people around him. Overall the story’s somewhat tame and predictable in direction (not in specifics), but it still works. The special effects and acting are fabulous; the film’s worth seeing just for that. I was a little disappointed that more creativity didn’t go into more of a plot, per se; other than the “old-to-young” aging gimmick, there isn’t much here, but it’s still worth seeing just for the novelty. There was also a rather useless “framing” gimmick of a daughter visiting her dying mother in the hospital and reading Benjamin’s story, and that was set in New Orleans just before hurricane Katrina hit. I felt this storyline added little to the overall story and just interrupted the flow far too often. It was also boring and though there was supposed drama with Katrina coming, it didn’t have anything to do with anything, and just felt out of place and odd.