I saw this movie on Christmas evening because I was too late to see Marley and Me.  I always liked Brad Pitt, as an actor and the movies he makes are usually well done.  This movie is a step up from his recent movies. 
The film is based on a short story from F. Scott Fitzgerald and has a classic “Great Gatsby” like tragedy that is looming from the beginning, but somehow does mke the plot predictable. The story begins with Benjamin’s birth in New Orleans on the night that World War I ends.  While the world is celebrating, Benjamin’s sweet mother dies in pain. His father (Jason Flemyng), sees Benjamin with his “Old Man” wrinkled face and thinks his child is a monster that caused his beloved wife’s death. He leaves the newborn on the stairs of a nursing home run by Queenie. Queenie is a bid hearted black woman who can not bare children of her own and who immediately accepts Benjamin.
Queenie and the doctors, and everyone else, believe Benjamin will die soon. However, day by day, Benjamin improves physically. Benjamin’s life is beyond unusual. He progresses from the size of a newborn into a short, oddly shaped old man who everyone thinks is eighty years old.  Somehow people forget there is a child inside this body. Always the optimist, Benjamin fits in with the real senior citizens who come to the nursing home to live out their final days and through his experiences with them comes to understand death.

One of the old ladies becomes Benjamin’s friend.  She teaches him to play the piano and introduces him to her granddaughter, Daisy. Daisy, as a child, is played by Elle Fanning (Dakota’s sister).  Daisy is an intelligent, free-spirited girl who is not feightened by Benjamin and deeply connects with him, despite not knowing his true age. With Daisy, Benjamin can play and behave like a child.
The reverse aging experienced by Benjamin is a slow process.  Eventually he begins to long for a new life in the real world. Almost by accident, Benjamin gets an opportunity to works on tugboat and discovers many new things.  He even has sex for the first time. But Benjamin is constantly thinking of Daisy.
Eventually Daisy and Benjamin reconnect at a point in their lives where they seem close in age. They share incredible sexual chemistry and genuinely fall in love.  Daisy become pregnant and this triggers fear within Benjamin as he is able to see that their lives are headed in different directions.
I don’t want to give away the ending!  But my take is that is an intense movie with quality acting and insights into life not overtly stated in the basic plot.  There is lots of sub-text. I also appreciate the great acting in this movie.  There is great acting by Taraji P Henson (as Pitt’s adoptive mother) Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett.  It was great to see Julia Ormond again, but her part is limited to being a weeping narrator.  Overall this is a high-caliber movie. 

Recommended: Yes

Movie Mood: Serious Movie
Viewing Method: Other
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
Worst Part of this Film: Duration