A while back Peter Sciretta over at /Film posted about a fan-made alternate poster to the sort of conventional and uninspiring characters posters used to promote The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The poster itself was created by a reader using a promotional image for the film's Oscar campaign. Flash forward a month and over at Internet Movie Poster Awards they recently posted a much more polished version of the proposed alternate poster making it potentially more official, and perhaps even used in the international marketing of the film.

Upon first glance the image seems very simple, but the difference of the extremely wrinkled skin, gray hair and liver-spotted head of an infant is supremely striking. I am personally very interested and critical in the art of movie posters, and while most posters attempt to use weak Photoshop skills and their cast's familiar faces to try to sell a film, I love when there's some style to the poster and even more when the poster can live up to a picture's expectations of being wort a thousand words.

The image of an infant Benjamin Button in his surrogate mother's arms evokes exactly the same feelings of the film. An all too familiar story following one man's journey through life is made completely out of the ordinary by this burden of aging backwards. Some have simply said Button is Forrest Gump with a twist. But for me, this twist really changes the story, and much like the image of this geriatric baby being held so lovingly, is simply beautiful.

Moving quickly from some praise to some wit, others are a little more forward in their comparisons of Benjamin Button with Forrest Gump. In the below video you can see a funny side-by-side comparison of more than a couple elements in common between the two films.