The Movie Was Better

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Classic Fiction

I don't think I've ever said this before, but........the movie version was so much better than the story!  (I'm scowling as I type because I never thought such words would come out of me.)

Here's why the movie was better:  it actually explored the characters and invested in them as real people.  This short story only had caricatures of people at different ages in their lives.  At the time, the idea was perhaps clever in its focus on exaggeration but is so overdone now.  It does help to know that Fitzgerald himself was not overly pleased with the story, lamenting it was little more than an idea he roughed out. 

The main character, Benjamin, was loathsome to me.  He was not sensitive to anything in his life or even aware of his plight so much as just self-involved and willing to exploit those around him for his own personal amusement. 

The most affective characters were the minor ones--the poor, socialite wife who fell in love with an older man, sacrificed her whole life for him and then was abandoned with SHE got old.  Discarded like a scruffy pair of old slippers. 

While I tremendously admire and respect and love Fitzgerald's work, I will attempt to remember this story as the movie version rather than this rough sketch of an ugly life.