During the holiday hustle and bustle, many moviegoers might wish to take a step back and watch life unfold before their eyes: be it the life of Benjamin Button, or their own lives while watching The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. At nearly three hours, the film makes a bid for “epic” that has seemingly paid off, in the form of Golden Globe nominations - and likely, Oscar nods.

Ironically, given its length, the film was adapted from a short story of the same name, written in 1921 by F. Scott Fitzgerald. In the original, Benjamin is born in 1960 Baltimore with the appearance of a 70-year-old man… and finds he ages in reverse. He marries, fights in the Spanish-American War, and attends Harvard University. The tale is peppered with wry observations on age and social custom.

Only the “aging in reverse” premise is carried over to the film adaptation. The life of Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt) begins in 1918 New Orleans and sweeps the 20th century. Since he is born the size of an infant with the afflictions of the elderly, and passes from life infant-sized, we are deprived of such perversely interesting scenes as a fully-grown man springing from the womb, or the fetal Benjamin popping out of existence.

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Starring: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Julia Ormond

Directed by: David Fincher

Written by: Eric Roth, Robin Swicord; adapted from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s story.

Likewise, no curiosity (scientific or otherwise) regarding his condition is expressed. While it’s refreshing not to have our hero hunted by “the scientists”, seeing characters fight against fate is more compelling than fate’s blind acceptance. In Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain (2006), the lead character tries sincerely to cheat aging and death, giving the film its emotional power.

Benjamin is entirely too comfortable with his abnormal condition to experience a dark night of the soul - his life is no more profound than any other. Brad Pitt plays age as a matter of mannerisms, his young and then old soul not apparent beneath the latex and computer effects.

With this dead weight in centre, the supporting cast, production, and set pieces must enliven the film. All put up a valiant effort.

The infant Benjamin is abandoned by his father who is horrified by his shrivelled appearance. He is adopted by Queenie (Taraji P. Henson) and Tizzy (Mahershalalhashbaz Ali), who run an old folks’ home. Hensen and Ali bring energy and warm feeling to the story’s early sections, as do the quirky residents of the home. Here Benjamin also meets Daisy (Cate Blanchett) as a young girl.

New Orleans has an rich, amber-hued look that evokes the pre-Katrina city in much the same way Gone With the Wind’s first half portrays golden pre-Civil War days. Later on, New York and Paris are given a similar appearance: dreamy old cities in which Daisy’s ballet skills flourish.

Eventually setting out on his own, Benjamin takes up work on a tugboat under the boisterous Captain Mike (Jared Harris), and discovers women and drink. His work takes him to a Russian port where he strikes up a affair with Elizabeth Abbott (Tilda Swinton). Benjamin’s relationship with Elizabeth is most endearing, since she presumes him to be a gentle, elderly man, whereas he experiences love for the first time.

An exciting World War II battle sequence that pitches Benjamin’s tugboat against a German U-Boat feels like the climax of the film - while falling in the middle of the running length. (An intermission, as in times of yore, might also be welcome here.)

Settling down with Daisy after her dance career reaches an abrupt end, we know what is coming for the now-middle-aged Benjamin: a domestic life in which the couple cannot grow old together.

In the frame story set in 2005, the young woman Caroline (Julia Ormond) reads Benjamin’s diary to her dying mother, Daisy, as hurricane Katrina brews. The conclusion to this story is hardly revelatory to mildly astute viewers, but it does reinforce the stolid themes of time and fate.

There is much to admire about Benjamin Button, such as it’s lack of sentimentality (a relief given that screenwriter Eric Roth wrote the mawkish Forrest Gump), and the vigour and color of its vintage New Orleans sections. But this simple dramatic story is stretched too thin by the epic scale. In the great screen epics, characters stand at time’s crossroads and try - whether successfully or in vain - to stamp their mark on eternity. Benjamin and Daisy drift instead.