This will be a more perfunctory post than I’d like; I’m currently sitting in Manuel’s, Atlanta’s premier left-wing watering hole, to watch some of the first presidential debate. But the call of a new HD trailer for David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was one I couldn’t ignore.

Like a lot of you, I’ve fallen prey to worry about this film. I didn’t see the reel that was shown at Telluride, but between that footage, several script reviews and reports of conflict between Fincher and Paramount, Benjamin Button has become the poster child for big, troubled films in ’08. (Hounddog remains the standard-bearer for small, troubled films.)

But this trailer, while not as ethereally beautiful as the first, does nothing to dampen my enthusiasm. I love Pitt’s voice as the youthful, aged Benjamin, I’m taken with Tilda Swinton apparently playing a woman who isn’t a stone cold bitch, and I can’t be more enthralled with the look of the film. My expectations remain tempered, but my hopes are running high. Watch this one and try to stay cynical. I dare you.

The trailer is available in all the new-fangled formats at Apple.