If you were given immortality what would you do with it? I am sure the first thought you would have is with an endless amount of time the list could be endless. While you could read all you want, and explore all you want, the one thing many people forget in this fantasy is their loved ones. You see while you would stay the same age, everyone you loved would get older and eventually die, which might make you scared to love again, and if you ask me without love there is no living at all. With that in mind, it might give you pause wishing for eternal life or it might make you want it even more.
Adaline (Blake Lively) was a normal woman who had known love and loss. While her life might have been normal, a unique experience gave her a life unlike anyone else. After an accident, three events that happened caused Adaline to have every woman’s dream, to never age past their 29th birthday. Of course not aging would cause some problems, as people around you would start to notice, as they get older, you stay the same age. So what Adaline does is go on the run, changing her name and location, so that she can live as normal as a life as she can. The time has come for her to change identities and move again, but she meets Ellis( Michiel Huisman) and although her first thought is to continue running, there is something that gives her pause and maybe decide to finally tell the truth to someone. The problem is all she has ever know is to run, it will take another accident and love to make her finally let go and stop running.
The first thing I can say about “The Age of Adaline”, is that is an enjoyable film. I say that, but the film is not without it’s flaws. The story and screenplay written by J.Mills Goodloe and Salvador Paskowitz starts off strong, but somewhere gets lost in the fantastical aspects of it’s story. The strong first half of the film makes you overlook the weaker last half, but as the movie gets to the end, that magic you liked about the story becomes a “of course they did” moment. The surprise though, most of the shortcomings, although evident, doesn’t take away from your overall enjoyment of the movie. Instead they serve as conversation piece afterwards as you point them out, in a kind of positive way. What also helps the movie is Lively’s performance, as she carries a sophication about herself that feels honest. While Lively carries most of the film, Harrison Ford shows up in the home stretch, and keeps everything going, well that is until the predictable ending. With all that said “The Age of Adaline” is a good movie, a movie that lets you embrace it even if it lacks that something special, and settle for the ending you knew was coming, because it makes you believe in it, and that is all you can ever ask for from a movie.
Brian Taylor
