Summary: In 2005, Daisy, an elderly woman, is on her deathbed in a New Orleans hospital. Daisy asks her daughter, Caroline, to read aloud from the diary of Benjamin Button.
In 1918, a boy is born with the appearance and physical maladies of a very elderly man. The baby's mother dies shortly after giving birth, and the father, Thomas Button, abandons the infant on the porch of a nursing home. Queenie and Mr. "Tizzy" Weathers, who work at the nursing home, find the baby, and Queenie decides to care for him as her own.
In 1930, 12-year-old Benjamin, having exchanged a wheelchair for crutches, befriends six-year-old Daisy, whose grandmother lives in the nursing home. As Benjamin's body grows younger, he accepts work on a tugboat. Benjamin also meets Thomas Button, who does not reveal that he is Benjamin's father. In 1936, Benjamin leaves New Orleans with the tugboat crew for a long-term work engagement.
In 1945, Benjamin returns to New Orleans, and learns that 21-year-old Daisy has become a successful ballet dancer. Benjamin again crosses paths with Thomas Button, who, terminally ill, reveals that he is Benjamin's father. Thomas wills Benjamin his possessions before he dies.
Daisy's dance career is ended in Paris in 1957, when she is hit by a taxi cab and breaks her leg. When Benjamin goes to see her, Daisy is amazed at his youthful appearance, but frustrated at her own injuries; she tells him to stay out of her life. In 1962, Daisy returns to New Orleans and reunites with Benjamin. Now of comparable physical age, they fall in love and move in together.
Daisy gives birth to a girl, Caroline in 1968. Benjamin, believing he cannot be a father figure to his daughter due to his reverse aging, sells his belongings, and leaves the proceeds to Daisy and Caroline. He travels the world alone during the 1970s.
Benjamin, appearing to be in his early twenties, returns to Daisy in 1980. Now re-married, Daisy introduces Benjamin to her husband and daughter as a family friend. Daisy then visits Benjamin at his hotel, where they share their passion for each other. Daisy admits that Benjamin was right to leave; she could not have coped otherwise. Benjamin departs again.
In 1991, Daisy receives a phone call from social workers. They have found Benjamin — now apparently about 12 years old — living in a condemned building, and have contacted her because they found her name in his diary. The bewildered social workers say that his condition resembles dementia. Daisy moves into the nursing home where Benjamin grew up and takes care of him as he becomes increasingly younger, until, physically an infant, he dies in Daisy's arms. Benjamin's story now told, Daisy dies in her New Orleans hospital bed, as Hurricane Katrina approaches.
The film was very long. I saw it last Sunday, together with my sister. At the beginning I didn't like it because it was the typically scene: an old women in a hospital. But I remember that I really wanted to see the film, so we continued watched it. After a half hour I began to like it, it's a complicate story and it makes you think about the world.
I mean, what would happened if the same thing passed to me? I think that the film is really good for that reason, it's a film where the most important things happen at the end and it is in the last minutes when you understand all the movie. I really like this kind of films.
