All I had heard about this movie is that it's about a man who gets younger, rather than older. And that is an important part of the film…but it is far from the crux of the film. The film, at its true heart, is a love story, which is well-done, not contrived and very well plotted. This surprised me for several reasons. David Fincher is not exactly the "go to" guy for your Hollywood love story. He's a action/thriller/gritty/dark director who's films always have an edge. Here, I feel Fincher's edge is the fantasy of the aging backwards gimmick, since the love story he creates is simple and gentle…a touching masterpiece of on-screen romance. This is the type of love story you would see with Tracy and Hepburn…magical and real. It reminded me a little of William Wyler's Roman Holiday, which, like this film is known more for another aspect of the film (in Wyler's case, his movie is known more for being a comedy) than for the more touching, more vivid true sentiment of the film. Fincher's fantasy aspect adds emphasis to the love story, just like Wyler's comic aspects of Roman Holiday accentuate the doomed relationship between Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn. In addition to this multi-layered story, the performances by Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett have never been better…especially Pitt, who convinces us every step of the way that he really is a man who was born old and will die young.
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