Despite its 13 Academy Award nominations in 2009, including Oscars for Make-up, Art Direction and Visual Effects, I put off watching this. Why? The idea of a baby being born old and aging backwards just didn’t appeal to me on any level.

Now that I’ve finally seen it, I understand what others were excited by. Yes, it does have a Forrest Gump quality (including a quirky seatboat captain), and yes, Brad Pitt gives one of his best performances ever. Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton, and Taraji P. Henson bring their unique characters to life, too.

But then there’s the Katrina background added for dramatic effect, the meant-to-shock deathbed revelation, the hummingbird’s symbolic reappearance, the way the accident in Paris is described to show the interconnectedness and consequence of events, and the serendipity of seeing the English Channel swim on TV. There’s just too much being forced on the viewer, like the director telling us “see how clever I am.” That aspect, I did not like. If the extraneous “showing off” had been cut out, this movie could have been a tight 120 minutes instead of too long at 165. It would have been better for the extra editing, too, IMHO.

I am a huge fan of David Fincher and, yes, this film was brilliant in so many ways. Great story, beautiful cinematography and overall production design, and the makeup and special effects were phenomenal. Really, I want to make it clear that I enjoyed this film and will no doubt watch it many more times in the future. That being said….

What really fascinated me, was the striking resemblance that this movie had to one of my other all time favorites. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Forrest Gump, Redeux. Now before anyone gets all uppity aobut it, let me first say that yes, I realize that Button was based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald story that pre-dates Gump by 73 years. No, I haven’t read it, but given that it is a short story, I would suspect that the screenwriters had plenty of room to work when it came to the adaptation. Of course, for all I know, Winston Groom lifted from Fitzgerald when he wrote Gump. Perhaps it is sheer coincidence. Wheatever. Don’t really know or care. What I do know is that the similarities are most definitely there in premise, theme and storyline.

The moment of clarity came after I turned to my buddy and said, “You know, this movie isn’t even about Benjamin.” Then it hit me like a ton of bricks and continued to throughout the movie. Like Forrest Gump, this movie uses an exceptional character as a vehicle to tell the story of the characters he encounters and the times they live in. After that realization, the parallels in the story itself were glaringly apparent at times, but it was definitely different enough, as well. I love Gump and I love Button and I would most definitely never steer anyone away from watching either of them. I’m just saying…check it out.