I’ve had a lot of people ask me why I thought the movie was great. Most people told me that they thought the movie was boring. Too long, too slow, so, why did I hype it up to be so good? I just thought I should give them a little explanation.

Brad Pitt is a great actor. Whether it be comedy (Burn After Reading), drama (Meet Joe Black), thriller (Se7en) or action (Fight Club). He is versatile and doesn’t get half the credit he deserves. I’m not talking about the sexiest man alive or the man who adopts the most children but for his skills as a thespian. Opposite him is one of the most graceful, elegant and powerful actresses since Grace Kelly, Cate Blanchett. She’s breath-taking either as an Elven queen in Lord of the Rings or as the immortal Katherine Hepburn in Aviator.

When you put these two together in Benjamin Button, you get a performance that will leave you yearning for more. The strength and hopelessness of their short-lived love teaches you a very important lesson. “It is better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.”

It might sound a little cliché but it’s true. Benjamin knows he has to journey through life alone and that no one can share his unique view of the world but the strength of their love keeps drawing him back to her again and again and again. And as I’ve said before, they share a brief liaison, but that keeps him going. And well, he trusts no one but her to take care of him as he is unable to care for himself as a toddler.

And the best part of the entire thing is, how understated the acting is. I love movies where there are no grand emotional scenes or hysterical, tear-jerking climaxes. I love movies where the mood and tone of the actors say all there is to say about their feelings. Legends of the Fall and Meet Joe Black were two such movies. In both, he said so little but then again, he didn’t have to. Anthony Hopkins (another legend who I can’t say enough about) and him just spoke to each other or didn’t but we always understood exactly what was going through their minds. Pitt conveyed both the sense of power as well as the vulnerabilities of being Death in Joe Black while Hopkins was the man who knew he had so little time but had to make his life and legacy count.