How much older are you willing to get while watching a movie about a man who grows younger? Because two hours and 45 minutes is a long, long, long running time for a movie.

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" follows the title character, played by Brad Pitt, as he grows from a creepy old baby thing into a real baby thing, with lots of drama involving his love, Daisy, played by the ethereal Cate Blanchett.

The reverse-aging is done well - Pitt looks like the boyish movie star of yore by the end of the film, but the first half-hour was downright creepy. When Button is about six or seven, he's this hunched-over man who has Pitt's face and Pitt's voice. The effect is disconcerting, like watching a little Brad Pitt gnome run all about. Thanks for giving me the willies, state-of-the-art CGI!

Unfortunately, the writing gets in the way of all the visual effects and the great (but not phenomenal) acting. The story suffers from having two interesting ideas crammed into one movie, which, at 2:45, is almost two regular-length films spliced together.

There's the "What happens when you age backwards?" plot, and the "I love you but we're aging in different ways" plot. The latter is the heart of the movie, as would be expected, but it's not the focus for the first, oh, half of the movie.

Another quibble: The story is told by Daisy's daughter, who is reading Benjamin's diary as Daisy lays dying in a hospital. The narrative breaks frequently for things like morphine doses or asides from Old Daisy and her daughter.

For the most part, save a touching scene near the end, it's an unnecessary distraction. The story is about the love between Benjamin and Daisy, not Daisy and her daughter.

There's also a very, very odd choice to stage this death/dramatic reading in New Orleans right before the arrival of Hurricane Katrina. I think it was supposed to serve some grand purpose, thematically, but I found it to be strange and in poor taste.

Speaking of things that went over my head: There's an old man who keeps saying, "Did I ever tell you I was struck by lightning seven times?" at several points in the film. But each time he only proceeds to name one or two of the incidents.

This is accompanied by old-timey footage of the actual lightning strike in question.

My best guess is that the character was added for comic relief, which doesn't make a lick of sense in a dramatic picture that has its own genuinely funny moments.

One other quibble: I could never tell how old/young/what? Benjamin was supposed to be at any given moment. Throw me a subtitle bone, people.

"Benjamin Button" is a very pretty movie. And the last hour is very emotional and interesting, but you have to slog through the overly long intro until things get moving. I'll leave it up to you to decide whether or not you want to sit for three hours for the big payoff.

review

'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'

Starring: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Taraji P. Henson, Julia Ormond, Jason Flemyng

Director: David Fincher

Run time: 2 hours, 45 minutes

Rated: PG-13, for brief war violence, sexual content, language and smoking

Now playing at: Crossroads, College Square

3 stars out of 5