REEL CRITIC:

Quite often Hollywood source material has to be significantly abridged to be successfully presented in the length of an average film, usually around two hours.

This is especially true of novels where a word-for-word telling of the story would take several hours if not days. To convert such material requires the tactful removal of characters and story lines. Some authors have refused to sell their works for film adaptation due to what they perceive is outright butchery of their craft.

Conversely, screenwriters have also been known to take a vague idea of a story and expand it beyond its original concept solely to create a serviceable screenplay.

Writer Eric Roth, who has written screenplays for such memorable films as “Munich,” “Ali,” “The Insider” and “The Horse Whisper,” has certainly taken many such liberties regarding “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”

Roth won an Academy Award for best adapted screenplay in 1995 for “Forrest Gump,” and “Benjamin Button” is very reminiscent of that film in many respects, especially its epic quality and use of actual historic events in the story.

Based on a 1921 short story written by F. Scott Fitzgerald for Collier’s magazine in 1921, Roth’s adapted screenplay has resulted in a film that runs for two hours and 46 minutes.

It should be noted that Roth retained only the central theme of Fitzgerald’s story: the concept of a man being born old and aging backward to infancy and eventual death. Roth has changed the time period, upbringing, love interest, family life and other key elements. Of particular note is changing the name of Benjamin’s love interest from Hildegarde to Daisy, the name of Fitzgerald’s most famous female character in “The Great Gatsby.”

Brad Pitt stars as Benjamin Button, born in New Orleans the day WWI ended. After his mother dies in childbirth, Benjamin’s father abandons what he thinks is a deformed child at an old age home. In actuality, the child manifests many symptoms of extreme old age and is given a short time to live. The baby is adopted by Queenie (Taraji P. Henson), the caretaker of the home.

Benjamin fits in well with the sick and dying tenants of the home and as time goes on he becomes healthier and more vibrant. One day a beautiful young girl named Daisy comes to visit her grandmother. Benjamin is immediately taken with the young girl and they start a friendship. While Daisy and Benjamin like each other well enough, the apparent difference in their ages prevents them from spending time together.

Eventually Benjamin is able to explore the neighborhood and sample life outside the home. He is befriended by a wealthy visitor to the home who unbeknownst to Benjamin is his father.

The “old man,” now actually in his 20s, accepts a job on a tugboat which is pressed into service at the outbreak of WWII. This allows Benjamin to see the world and experience many things including love, friendship, war and heartbreak.

As the trailers for the film make clear, the core plot element is the love affair between Benjamin and Daisy once they “meet in the middle” and are age appropriate. The mature Daisy, played by Cate Blanchett, is Benjamin’s one true love. Unfortunately, they both realize their time together will be short as they chronologically drift way from each other. As Benjamin says, “nothing lasts.”

Technically, the film is brilliant. When Pitt is an infirm old man, special effects are employed to actually place his head on another body to emulate the shrunken and decrepit form of advanced age.

Much of the film takes place in New Orleans and the city takes on a magical and dream-like quality due to the muted tones used by director David Fincher (“Zodiac,” “Fight Club”). Other venues depicted include Paris and Russia although filming actually occurred almost entirely in North America.

While entertaining, the film is overly long. Ironically, the film is much more interesting prior to the key event of Daisy and Benjamin finally getting together.

Once they unite, the film gets predictable and the eventual outcome can easily be anticipated. Nonetheless, “Benjamin Button” has been nominated for 13 Academy Awards including Best Picture. Additionally, Pitt is nominated for Best Actor and Henson is nominated for Best Supporting Actress.

I recommend “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” for anyone who finds the trailers appealing and is undaunted by the picture’s length.

The story really revolves around one central plot element but is presented and acted well.

While worthy of the nominations, I believe the film is more likely to win writing and technical awards rather than Best Picture or the acting categories given the unusually strong competition this year.

VAN NOVACK is the assistant vice president of institutional research and assessment at Cal State Long Beach and lives in Huntington Beach with his wife, Elizabeth.