Fear's Forums

Haven't watched a movie in a while, feels nice to finally write a new review!

For those who aren't familiar with this film, it's based off of a short story written by F.Scott Fitzgerald. I myself never read the book. To sum up the story it's about a man who is born as an old man. He's a baby but with arthritis, wrinkled skin and all the works. As he ages, he becomes younger and younger thus eventually dying as a baby. Interesting right? Well yes, but that's about it, it's an interesting concept and I think that's the main problem with the film. It relies too much on the idea being cool and doesn't really pay attention to the other aspects of the movie.

While not a film student of any kind, the first thing that turned me off immediately is this movie tries way too hard to be artsy and put in some symbolism. The movie starts off with a clock maker who loves making clock and then loses his son to the war, so he ends up making this huge clock for the city but it works backwards. His reasoning is that if we could turn back time he would see his son again. This is pretty stupid and pointless...we never see this man again, or the clock and the city just somehow leaves a broken clock in town. I'm sure the art people are drooling over this scene and probably dream about it every night thinking it's the best thing ever.

So anyways, we get past that part and get to see what it's like to grow up backwards. This is a cool concept and fun to watch, it's really the main attraction that draws an audience to see this movie. One point that I find the movie falls flat on is the love story. I figure that the whole point of this movie is about how tough it must be to fall in love when your aging backwards otherwise watching a whole movie about just some dude aging backwards would probably get dull after 15 mins. Well the problem is the characters never really seem to love each other...they see each other when they're kids, then when they're young adults. Finally due to an accident they decide to start a relationship that lasts maybe...5 or so years and then the guy leaves because he doesn't want his daughter to have a kid as a father. Just I don't know, the chemistry wasn't there and for me their emotions didn't really feel appropriate or realistic.

So overall, cool film to watch because of its concept, some pretty fun scenes earlier in the beginning but then it gets kind of crappy when he meets up with his "lover".

Normally I don't re-read books, but I've read this one about 4 times now, and I liked it more each time. And it's short, so it's a pretty fast read, and keeps your attention focused from beginning to end. Fitzgerald has such an amazing mastery of imagery and dialogue - reading this book is like watching a mini movie in your head. It's also a unique story in that it's very humorous, but also kind of sad. The two don't normally go together so well. I can't wait to see the movie they're making based on it! It will be interesting to compare their similarities and differences.

This copy (clock on cover & ISBN 1603550836) is a nice trade paperback sized book, not the smaller mass market paperback size you see in romance novels and cheaper paperbacks. It is thin, since it's a short story, but I was very pleased with the quality, and think it will make a great little present/stocking stuffer for my friends. I feel more confident giving a small book like this than a 500 page novel because I've always felt that with people being so busy, they may be hesitant to start a large novel. I also think since the movie opens on Christmas, they will love having a copy of the book to read around the same time.