The Age of Adaline

• Directed by Lee Toland Krieger
• April 24, 2015 (US)

A young woman is rendered ageless following an accident in the 1930s.

I’m a bit of a sucker for a romantic movie. I’m not talking about something overly angst ridden or excessively melodramatic. Give me a good old-fashioned romance with emotion and authentic reactions rather than something silly. Toss in some supernatural elements and you pretty much have me. It’s not done with everything being all hormones and superficial. These are adult characters.

Blake Lively stars in the title role as Adaline Bowman. I think Lively’s take on the character in the moments in the past is good. However she plays that character almost the same in the present. I can’t imagine somebody that lives for an extra 78 years would maintain the same diction. Maybe a little less stiff and reserved in tone. Maintain proper grammar but relax.

Aside from the voice, Lively is quite compelling in the role. There is a sense of pain and loneliness in her character. And Lively gives Adaline an air of wisdom earned by experience. You do get a good sense of the characters general loneliness and the fear she has of what would happen should she ever be found out.

And I’m taking a fear other than becoming a lab rat for the government. Adaline had a daughter named Flemming (Ellen Burstyn as an adult in the present / Cate Richardson at age 20 / Izabel Pearce as Young Flemming) prior to ceasing aging and has maintained contact with over the decades. With her daughter getting older Adaline knows that soon she will be alone in the world.

I liked the inclusion of Flemming. It really drove home the passage of time and provided for emotional moments. Ellen Burstyn is a fine actress and the moments with Flemming in the present day made things a little poignant. Her daughter after all was the only family and the only connection to her life she had left and Adaline’s daughter’s time was coming. This is driven home in moments where the characters alluded to her eventual passing.

And being a romantic film, Adaline encounters a persistent and independently wealthy man named Ellis (Michiel Huisman) who wears down the personal barriers Adaline has built up over the decades to win her heart. It is your basic concept for a romantic plot. If this were a Lifetime movie, Ellis would be the dashing handyman in a rural town. Chemistry is what sells something like this. Huisman and Lively make a very believable screen couple. They are not just two good looking people that look pretty together.

The romance in this film isn’t a romance whose basis is sex. There aren’t numerous scenes of passionate love making. Rather it’s two characters falling for who each truly is. The men in her life fall for an intelligent and intriguing woman. In the present Adaline falls for a kind soul who is every bit the man that she had fallen in love with 78 years prior. More often than not romance stories are two attractive people going “Wowza! They’re hot!” and falling in love from there.

Harrison Ford stars as William, an old flame of Adaline and a bit too coincidentally Ellis’s father. William still holds a place in his heart for her and seeing her many years later is a bit of a surprise to him and one that he finds rather unnerving. The impossibility of his lost love never having aged allows Adaline to pose as her own daughter.

Ford does great here. He plays William as unbalanced by events. He is not a sure of himself hero or in control of the situation. The loss and pain he felt all those years comes flooding back and his character is left confused and unbalanced.

The narration of the film is straight forward. It’s almost matter of fact as if someone was reading a passage from a book. But the how the story is structured and the music, combined with that straightforward narration gives The Age of Adaline an almost fairytale quality.

The narration also serves to skip over in film dialogue and scenes which might slow down the story. You get a plausible, scientific sounding explanation for Adaline’s agelessness. It also fills in important bits of her history.

The film has a great script and is well directed. It knows how to pull your heartstrings and get the emotions going. One thing The Age of Adaline does is make the point that mortality makes our life special. Living forever is a nice concept but what makes life special is that these moments will never truly come again. We need to find love and hope and purpose when we can because the chances for those are few and far between.

The Age of Adaline is a great romantic film with a touch of a message. It’s sweet and serious with a fantasy type feel. I highly recommend this!