David Fincher easily proves once again why he’s a director to geek out about. He’s taken a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald and turned into a nearly three-hour opus; a meditation on life and death that’s over before you barely realized it’s begun. Lavishly produced and sublimely acted, the film spans 90 years following the life of a literal backwards man growing younger rather than the traditional, getting older, way of going through life. Sounds heady, right? Sort of, but looking at Benjamin Button it reminds me more of a gothic Forrest Gump, but without the whole main character tripping over history thing.

Appropriately told in flashbacks, we see Daisy (Cate Blanchett) on her deathbed in a New Orleans hospital on the eve of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall, Her daughter (Julia Ormond) finds a curious book in her mother’s affects, a diary containing the life story of one Benjamin Button (played, predominately, by Brad Pitt). Benjamin, as he says, “was born under unusual circumstances.” He was an infant with the body of a man in his late 80s, taken in by the kind-hearted Queenie (Taraji P. Henson) after being abandoned by his horrified father (Jason Flemying). Raised, so to speak, in New Orleans, Benjamin leads an exceptional life, seemingly fulfilling the old adage that youth is wasted on the young.

A combination of flawless make-up and great acting sees Brad Pitt transform into Benjamin with subtle charm. As with many good looking actors, one’s prone to forget that Pitt actually has some skill in the creation of a character, and working with Fincher, his Seven and Fight Club director, definitely seems to suit him. But in Benjamin Button, it’s the supporting performances that truly hep the film rise to the occasion. Henson’s Queenie is the heart of the film, immediately accepting Benjamin as her own child and teaching him to appreciate his differences. Jarod Harris adds zest as Captain Mike, the tug boat skipper that gives Benjamin a trade. And Tilda Swinton makes a brief but very memorable impression as Elizabeth Abbott, whose short but sweet Russian affair with Benjamin makes a lasting impression.

But the most powerful relationship of the film is the one between Daisy and Benjamin, which manages to be both sweet and bittersweet. Though its doomed to circumstances, the romance is undeniable; from what starts as a simple friendship out of mutual curiosity when they’re both 7 (although Benjamin looks 70), grows to something more romantic as they both get older. “Meeting in the middle,” as Daisy observes, they’re both able to realize their attraction after a couple of start/stops when they’ve reached adulthood, but in the midst of elation comes the realization that it can’t last. The “Curious Case” of Benjamin Button seems less about his circumstances and more about how a man, whose life is a complete contradiction to how the world works, finds his way in dealing with that world.

Once more, Fincher, as a man whose world view could generously be described of as bleak, manages to create a fairly sentimental work. Benjamin Button does have a heart, but unlike the aforementioned Forrest Gump it doesn’t wear that heart on its sleeve with big red arrows pointing at it. It takes a man of great skill to impact you so completely with such a gentle hand. As the story unfolds, you’re aware of the time passing, but you’re not aware of just how fast that time is passing you by, much like life itself. So many films that are far shorter in comparison see to feel so much longer, but there’s no lull in Benjamin Button. There’s no time wasted and the story is somehow wonderfully paced without ever feeling rushed.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is odd conglomeration of mysticism, mythology and melodrama, which are potently combined to make an epic, fictional life story. Made with meticulous detail, this may stand as Fincher’s best film yet, but such a provocative statement could be argued till the cows come home considering that this is the man that also gave us Seven, Fight Club and Zodiac. The incomparable skill of the man has done the seemingly improbable: creating a heart-felt filmed melodrama that leaves you shattered though you barely even notice.