A baby is abandoned by his petrified parents when it is born with all the features of an elderly man. Fortunately, he finds a home with the caring "Queenie" (Taraji P. Henson) who is somewhat adept at looking after seniors - just not ones this tiny. It doesn't take "Benjamin" long to assume a more adult size but he still exhibits all the frailties of a disablingly arthritic old age whilst having the emotional maturity of a bairn. They all realise that as he gets older, he will get younger until eventually he will regress back into infancy and then essentially die of young age - assuming fate doesn't intervene in the meantime. Had he had the benefits of the presumed wisdom of his years at the start, then his life might have been different but he was learning in reverse and so was for a long time very dependent on "Queenie", her beau "Tizzy" (Mahershala Ali) and his fellow residents at the care come. All of what happens now is narrated by "Caroline" (Julia Ormond) who is reading his diary to her ailing mother and his long term best friend "Daisy" (Cate Blanchett) and as their stories interveave across the better part of a century it also quite effectively mirrors so much of the evolution of the United States during a time from the end of the Great War until the deadly hurricane "Katrina" descended upon an ill-prepared New Orleans. The make up artists have done sterling work turning Brad Pitt from an elderly gent (whom I did think looked more like Mark Hamill) to an handsome young charmer who falls in love with the younger "Daisy" but who is terrified that should they have a child, it might end up just like him! There isn't a continuous narrative for any of his relationships or friendships which makes this much more interesting than just being a straight chronology but as she reads and we listen, we learn of a troubled soul with plenty to give if only nature and nurture can reconcile long enough for him to learn to trust and be trusted. Trying to get a couple of hours from this original F. Scott Fitzgerald short story was always going to be an ask, but with both Pitt and Henson, especially, delivering at their most characterful; the usually rather aloof Blanchett imbuing her character with a surprising degree of engaging vulnerability as their love blossoms and the sparingly used Ormond adding something really quite emotional as the pennies drop as she reads this book, David Fincher has crafted something remarkably human for us here. The production design convinces well as the clock ticks backwards and forwards - depending on who you are, and the Alexandre Desplat score augments a very stylish story that does tug at the heart strings occasionally, but that is mercifully devoid of much sentimentality as the inevitable conclusion looms ever larger for a "Daisy" for whom roles are now reversing. There's everything from war to romance in here, and it's well worth a watch on a big screen if you can.