A successful adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was a great success. The film, although based on a book, has many differences. The meaning of this does not change.
Plot: What is the movie about?
The plot is based on the memories of the protagonist. In the beginning, the story is about a dying old woman: an elderly woman lies on a hospital bed, and her loving daughter sits next to her. The old woman suddenly begins a strange story, which may seem like the delirium of an elderly person: a dying woman recalls the clock installed in 1918 at the station.
The mechanism is unique in that the hands in it go backwards. They were created by Mr. Gatto, a watchmaker who desperately wanted to return his son who died in the war. He dreams that time will actually turn back. Too many people have experienced terrible tragedies, having lost loved ones in a brutal war. A miracle does not happen, but far from the clock, something else happens.
There is a double grief in the family of Thomas Button: his beloved wife dies in childbirth, having given birth to an unprecedented freak. A baby with an old man’s face is terrifying. The angry and stunned father grabs the newborn in his arms, runs out into the street with him and leaves the bundle at the porch of some large house.
Fortunately for the baby, he was placed at the nursing home. A compassionate employee found the old man: her heart trembled. A childless woman decided to adopt an unusual child. Queenie gave him a name: Benjamin, and loved him with all her heart.
Growing up, Benjamin Button amazes others: every year he becomes younger. By the age of 11, the old man meets six-year-old Daisy, the granddaughter of one of the guests. For the first time in his life, Benjamin found a friend. Much later, matured young people fall in love with each other. But fate separates them in order to bring them together again – even though the lovers do not suspect it.
World War II begins, Button comes under fire and is sent to Russia. In a new country, he meets an amazing woman, Elizabeth, and realizes that he has found true love. The Russian woman charms him: young people cannot talk enough. The soul and mind of a woman make Benjamin forget about Daisy. With a Russian woman, for the first time, he indulges in adult love.
Elizabeth herself considers her life useless. She believes that she lives in vain, but does not want to change anything. The woman believes that there is no time left for change. A meeting with Benjamin Button changes her mind: a spark of hope lights up in the life of a tired and bored rich woman. But the couple breaks up: Button returns to his hometown.
The rejuvenated Benjamin is hardly recognized by the joyful Daisy. There is some awkwardness in the couple. In the life of a young man there is another meeting: with his own father. Not immediately, but he forgives the old man and at the same time learns his last name. Dying Thomas explains that he decided to leave his son all his inheritance: business, house, business.
Together with his father, a young man goes to the coast. The old man meets the last dawn and says important words to his son: “You can swear, curse fate. But when you realize that the end is near, you just need to accept it.
The next meeting with Daisy is terrible: she had an accident, received multiple fractures and drove Benjamin away, not wanting to show herself in such a pathetic way. Two years later, young people meet again – more precisely, a young man and a mature woman.
They decide to live together. Soon the couple has a child, but by that time Benjamin already understands: they will not see a happy family life. Daisy is gradually aging, and the chosen one, on the contrary, is only getting younger. Due to his uniqueness, he constantly travels around the world, makes new acquaintances and enjoys fame. Daisy, meanwhile, takes the baby and marries another: their child will grow up in a full-fledged family. Button grieves that he failed to become a good father, and on the baby’s first birthday he opened a bank account in the name of Daisy – let mother and child never know poverty. He himself disappeared from the radar.
Years pass. One day, a policeman knocks at the house of Daisy and her daughter: he brought a little boy who had a diary in his backpack with a written down address of a woman. The heroine immediately understands who is in front of her, and takes custody of Benjamin. As the boy grows younger and younger, she studies his diary. The once beautiful Benjamin Button, the father of her child, gradually loses the ability to speak, then stops walking. Having finally turned into a baby, he dies in the arms of his beloved woman.
The old woman’s story ends, she dies. The woman at the bedside realizes that Benjamin Button was her father and mother’s main secret.
The meaning of the film “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Benjamin Button lived to be 80 years old. Although he developed in the opposite direction and sincerely believed that he would never die, the miracle did not happen. To influence the course of time is beyond the power of man – that’s what the film says.
The relationship between man and time is revealed in several aspects.
Memory versus time
Human memory is capable of resisting the bygone time. In their memories, people can do the impossible, namely, resurrect those who left this world long ago. Growing up surrounded by old people, the hero learns to be calm: there is nothing to worry about because of trifles, elderly friends constantly remind. Benjamin ceases to be ashamed of himself.
Age and hours
The danger of passing seconds is also viewed through the prism of age. Years are just numbers. A person at any age can remain young – as long as his heart has not hardened and is able to love, the categories of old age and youth do not apply to him. Love is the main meaning of human life.
The main thing in life
The embodiment of absolute feeling becomes Queenie – a kind woman who took in an ugly orphan. She was not afraid of the old face, but managed to sincerely love Benjamin for who he is. The savior does not require anything from her son – if only the child was happy and just lived. Against this background, the refusal of his own father looks cruel, but it turns out to be a great success for the newborn old man. What would he become if he remained in a broken family, where he was not loved in advance? It turns out that no wealth – and Thomas Button was rich – can not replace a person with simple, sincere love.
Parents and children
The relationship between father and son is important. Although the old man did not have time to give his son love, he nevertheless taught him humility: the last words before his death had a hidden meaning.
That same love
Romance with Daisy has become a difficult test for both. According to the plot, the couple constantly breaks up and converges again. During his life, an attractive man managed to spin a deep sensual romance with Elizabeth, Daisy once married another – but if two people are destined to be together, fate will definitely bring them together.
What is the point of the movie ending
Daisy dies in the hospital, which is soon covered by a natural disaster: Hurricane Katrina floods the entire city with water. The same watch is gradually submerged under water. The station attraction has already been dismantled and removed to the basement, where the mechanism is flooded. The clock continues to count back.
The meaning of the ending is simple: it is impossible to defeat time. No matter how a person is born, everyone is destined for one end – death, cardiac arrest and life. And time will continue to go even after the death of the last inhabitant of the planet.
