Swept Away

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is the Forrest Gump of 2008. It has everything an Oscar front runner would require and is armed to the hilt for battle with its concept (given more respect being inspired by a short story by Fitzgerald), backdrop, historical significance, cinematography, tragic love story, and above all else, the underdog protagonist.

Yet, you forget about these things when you get immersed in this saga of love, loss, redemption, loneliness and the struggle to find peace within. While the premise is simply of a man who ages backwards, this movie is more about the relationships that the man develops and of the simple notion that never leaves him - that he is getting younger as others get older, and that he will see them age before him and eventually lose them. It is about a man who loves completely and is forever fascinated by the opposite sex, almost in awe and so very respectful. Be it the woman who adopted him or the one who he slept beside, he seems to treat them with a quiet dignity.

This movie is like an object that demands your full attention, and I could not help but give it just that. It is long and one must be patient, but this is the sort of cinema that sweeps you away. The journey has a sense of melancholy, but nonetheless also possesses the romance that often accompanies tragedy. I'd watch it again just to get inspired. To see how a child proclaimed a devil at birth touches the lives of so many people and how he learns from them and how much he gives them in return.

We live in tumultuous times. Everything is fleeting. I don't quite know if the world will end in my time, or a more wrecked version of it will be there for my children to see. Or if I will be proved a pessimist and things will actually get better. It is heartening to place yourself at the disposal of cinema that transports you out of your current frame of mind and takes you someplace else. You drown yourself and you emerge a little better than before, having been touched by the beauty of people you may never meet and lives than will never cross your path. Ironic? Well, such is life...