"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" **1/2 (out of four): David Fincher's wildly overlong adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald short story misses a key point from its source material: the story should be a short one.

I'll follow visionary director David Fincher anywhere - from his dark clunkers ("Alien 3", "The Game") to his dark masterpieces ("Seven", "Zodiac"). But even I have to wonder what made him take on "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", a wildly overlong adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald short story. To be sure, the film - about a man who is born old and ages in reverse - is technically and visually stunning. But the script, by "Forrest Gump" scribe Eric Roth, doesn't have much to say beyond the usual "live in the moment" affirmations. And at 165 minutes, you may begin to wonder if you could reverse time yourself and get some of your life back.

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