The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a 2008 American film whose main character is adapted from a 1921 short story of the same name written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The film was directed by David Fincher, written by Eric Roth, and stars Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. The film was released on December 25, 2008.
The Plot
The elderly Daisy (Cate Blanchett) is on her deathbed in a New Orleans, Louisiana hospital as Hurricane Katrina approaches in August 2005. She asks her daughter Caroline (Julia Ormond) to read aloud from a diary containing photographs and postcards written by Benjamin Button. Caroline begins to read, and the story is then told from the point of view of Benjamin in his own voice.
On November 11, 1918, just as the people of New Orleans are celebrating the end of the Great War, a baby boy is born with the appearance and physical limitations of a man who is 80 years old. The mother of the baby dies shortly after giving birth, and the father, Thomas Button, takes the baby and abandons him on the porch of a nursing home close to the docks. Queenie (Taraji P. Henson) and Tizzy (Mahershalalhashbaz Ali), an African-American couple who work at the nursing home, find the baby. Queenie, who is unable to conceive, decides to take the baby in as her own, against Tizzy’s wishes, and names the baby “Benjamin” (Brad Pitt).