Timely Marvel

Based on a short story by F Scott Fitzgerald, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button is the frontrunner at this year’s Oscars with a hefty 13 nominations.

Were it not for Slumdog Millionaire, David Fincher's visually spectacular fable would probably sweep the board just as The English Patient, directed by the late Anthony Minghella, did in 1996.

However, this technically dazzling, 166-minute epic still stands a good chance of cluttering the mantelpiece with golden statuettes.

Claudio Miranda’s gorgeous cinematography shows off the majestic production design to the full, complimented by slick computer-generated effects and Alexandre Desplat’s heartstring-plucking score.

Yet there is something slightly awry in this fantastical tale of a man who grows younger, not older, with each passing day.

Perhaps it’s the strong feeling that we’re being emotionally manipulated, or the pacing, which seems to drag in places.

The film opens in a New Orleans hospital room where Caroline (Ormond) watches as her elderly mother Daisy (Blanchett) clings to life. To pass the time, Caroline reads from an extraordinary journal.

“My name is Benjamin Button and I was born under unusual circumstances...” confides the hero as we are transported back to 1918, when an expectant father (Flemyng) races home to witness the birth of his son.

Mr Button recoils in horror – the mewling infant looks like an old man, with ossified bones and wrinkled skin. He abandons the child in the dead of night, but African-American retirement home nurse Queenie (Henson) takes pity on the abandoned babe, and raises him as her own.

As Benjamin (Pitt) grows older, he looks ever more youthful. Eventually he seeks his fortune aboard a tugboat captained by a hard-drinking Irishman (Harris, pictured far left) and finds romance with a beautiful ballet dancer called Daisy (Blanchett).

The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button recalls Forrest Gump, possessing the same scope and ambition as it juxtaposes an ordinary man’s extraordinary escapades against a backdrop of 20th century American history.

Fincher orchestrates some stunning set pieces including an explosive encounter with a Second World War U-boat and a dazzling sequence about the cruelty of fate.

Digital trickery superimposes Pitt’s face onto the bodies of other actors until he is able to embrace the lead role entirely.

He perfectly captures his character's inner turmoil; the fear of forging emotional bonds with Daisy or the people he cares about because “while everybody else was ageing, I was getting younger, all alone”.

Supporting performances are equally strong, notably Henson’s surrogate mother, who stares tenderly at Benjamin that first night and remarks, “You may be as ugly as an old pot... but you still a child of God.”