The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Hmmmm...... . This is, indeed, a curious movie! Quite improbable! But, it is an interesting premise to discuss the hot topic of age differences in relationships and how love crosses them!

Scott Fitzerald's theme in his book by the same name is clearly communicated in the movie -- that at any numerical age, one is, in a way, both young and old. Benjamin Button ages from an old man to a baby. Along the way, at various ages, he finds relationships. He is able to relate, though it is hard to say what age he really is! But, does it matter? The point is he related and developed good lasting relationships as with Daisy, his love, and Queenie, his adopted mum.

The movie examines this issue with unprejudiced clarity and depth. For that alone, it is worth watching! It defies the conventional notions of age while establishing the fact that where there is love, age differences, too, can be conquered.

Having said that, I have to add, this is probably workable in the reel world -- not the real world! In reality, no full-blooded young man or woman -- whether 18, 28 or even 38 -- is going to start a lasting relationship with, say, a 70-year-old even if she looks as hot and beautiful as Cate Blanchet was made up to look at around 60 plus or if he were as wealthy and desirable as media baron, Rupert Murdoch! Not that it never happens.

Aussie media moghul, Rupert Murdoch, was 68 when in 1999 he married his third wife, Wendy Deng (who is a Chinese) when she was 30 years old. The marriage is still going strong and they have two daughters. And, actress Joan Collins, around 60-plus of age, married someone who was about 30 years old more than a decade ago. That marriage, too, is holding.

But, these are exceptions rather than the norm. Murdoch is filthy rich and that is a good reason for a woman to go for such an old man. And, Joan Collins? Well, Joan Collins is Joan Collins! And, she, isn't exactly super rich! But, she is hot and there must be something in that relationship to keep it going.

Of course, there are more such examples and we hear of them all around us. Generally, though, these May-December relationships are great affairs, and encouraged to be kept that way. But, I find that quite hypocritical. I mean, you don't mind having sex with them but you don't believe they can support an emotional relationship with you?!

So, I find more honesty in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button than among the affair-lovers because it shows a real relationship despite the age differences. It may be highly improbable but not entirely impossible!

There are two reasons why it worked in the movie and those same reasons can apply to real life. One is the unique circumstances you may be in. Benjamin Button didn't choose his life; it happened that way. Old and ugly at birth, his father abandoned him. A black woman -- who, herself understood what it is like to be rejected because of the way one looks -- saw beyond the ugliness and beheld just a rejected baby and took care of him. Because of her magnanimity a story began that could be told.

The second reason is love. This, really, is the only reason that crosses all boundaries, barriers and differences. It was love that made a black woman at the bottom of the social heap pick up an abandoned white boy and raise him. It was love that made an old-young man start a family, although it was that same love that also led him to leave the woman and child he loves because he knew he would not be able to support them when he ages and becomes a child. And, later, to embrace again the now older woman. It was love that led an old woman to take care of the man she loves who has now become a baby. Love transcends all things.

But, such real love, whether in a May-December relationship or in any other relationship, is rare. But, I think, people are not stupid. When real love happens, we know it and we do what only love bids us to do and always in the best interests of the person loved. No one needs to train or teach us. Love always prompts action and always in the direction of the person/s loved.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is not really an entertaining movie. But, as food for thought? It is excellent!

Slumdog Millionaire

I will give Slumdog Millionaire a four-star rating. It loses a star for its somewhat far-fetched plot and an only average standard of acting. But, on all other counts, it deserved its Oscars.


The cinematography is brilliant. The angles at which it captured the scenes give an interesting perspective of slum life in India and the colours that are part of the environment but which are often missed because overwhelming poverty grabs your attention. Yet -- because of the cinematography -- you see colour in that abject poverty -- flashes of colourful sarees and reflecting light in running water and falling rain, for example. The music is hauntingly dramatic, weaving the theme of tragedy as the plot unfolds and the drumbeat keeps you sensually in suspense.


The movie is tightly edited and the plot, while simple, portrays a slice of reality in up and coming India -- the horrors of life in the slums which form the inescapable reality of its inhabitants. That's the way life is -- unless luck is on your side. As the blind boy Aravind tells Jamal: "The only difference between you and I is that you were lucky!"


And luck is on Jamal's side all the way to the top prize of the game show "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire". It is quite incredulous that all the questions that the host of the show asks Jamal could be related to some specific experience he has gone through. That might be a bit hard to believe, but it does show that Jamal is, indeed, a lucky guy who -- because of luck -- finally gets the love of his life!


Despite its apparent shortcomings, Slumdog Millionaire is nevertheless a highly entertaining movie. It is visually stimulating and musically emotion-evoking and with a real plot without the typical melodrama that Bollywood is famous for. And, Danny Boyle definitely deserves an Oscar for Best Director for taking unknown actors and slum children and raising them to a commendable standard of acting as evidenced in the movie.


Slumdog Millionaire is worth watching!