Director
David Fincher
Leading Actors/Actresses
Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett
Supporting Actors/Actresses
Taraji P. Henson, Julia Ormond, and Jason Flemyng
Genre
Fantasy/Romance
Language
English
Awards
Nominated for thirteen Academy Awards and won three: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Pitt, Best Supporting Actress for Henson, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Original Score, Best Sound Mixing, Best Makeup (Winner), Best Art Direction (Winner), and Best Visual Effects (Winner)
Date of Release
25 December 2008
Producer
Cean Chaffin, Kathleen Kennedy, and Frank Marshall
Setting and Context
The United States (Primarily New Orleans), 1918 - 2005
Narrator and Point of View
Through the point of view of narrator Daisy
Tone and Mood
Romantic, somber, funny, scientific, inquisitive, thrilling, and fantastical
Protagonist and Antagonist
Benjamin vs. life
Major Conflict
The conflict between Benjamin and his strange aging process, which results in significant alienation
Climax
When Benjamin and Daisy meet up and are the same age
Foreshadowing
Daisy and Benjamin falling in love is foreshadowed early on in the film.
Benjamin becoming excessively detached and living alone as a teenage-looking boy is foreshadowed by him leaving Daisy and his daughter and several other situations.
Understatement
The strangeness and profound effect the disease has on Benjamin is constantly understated throughout the film.
Innovations in Filming or Lighting or Camera Techniques
The film used a very unique camera system called Contour, to capture facial deformation data from the real-life, live action performances.
Allusions
Allusions to history, popular culture, mythology, literature, F. Scott Fitzgerald, natural disasters, war, dance, and other things - famous and otherwise.
Paradox
Benjamin's entire situation (aging backwards) is paradoxical. Particularly when social services found him, seemingly a teenager, suffering with dementia, a disease for older people.
Parallelism
No significant instances of parallelism.
