My wife and I went to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button this morning while the kids were at school.  We actually saw it with an audience full of senior citizens.  I now know what the 55+ crowd is doing all day while I’m at the office. Don’t get me wrong — I want to hang out and watch movies when I retire.

The movie stars Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, with a supporting role by Tilda Swinton.  This is, coincidently, my 2nd Brad Pitt movie watched in the theater — first was Ocean’s Eleven.  I have seen his other movies generally as a DVD rental. Sooooo, what did I think?  My wife and some movie critics have hit the nail on the head — it’s basically Forrest Gump all over again.  Interestingly enough, writer Eric Roth wrote the screenplays to both Benjamin Button and Forrest Gump.

It’s a slow movie (nearly 3 hours), sentimental, and generally decent.  You watch Benjamin’s character observe others and life itself, which is fine, but I thought it was just a bit too long.  I gotta say that I’m disappointed in the actual movie trailers online.  They basically tell the whole movie, without giving you a sense of the scenes themselves.  If you are planning to watch the movie, don’t watch the trailer.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

I’m sure this isn’t really noteworthy, so please go ahead and yawn. I’ve never been good at jigsaw puzzles.  The Ipes didn’t do them growing up, and whenever I tried to participate in other people’s jigsaw puzzle adventures, I got frustrated early on.  This time around, Nums (as always) introduced me to doing jigsaw puzzles in a new and better way.  Following her lead, I enjoyed it, worked with her to complete it, and I felt relaxed.

This was a 550 piece puzzle.

Joel's 1st jigsaw puzzle