Age of Adaline (2015)

The curse of immorality is not that you grow restless and run out of things to do; it is that those close to you come and go with the passing years, and experiencing heartbreak becomes commonplace as the one you want to grow old with does—but you don't. This intriguing trope would be a brilliant one to explore, but in the entirety of The Age of Adaline, it is completely forgotten in its nonsensical storyline and passionless, flawed characters who never truly feel in love.

After a freak accident in the late 1920s, Adaline finds herself permanently stuck in her young body up into the 21st century. The only person who knows her secret is her daughter and she purposefully avoids love at all costs—not because she's afraid of heartbreak, that would be silly, but rather she is actually terrified of being experimented on and used for science. Most of this information comes to us in flashbacks topped-off with an annoying Benjamin Button-esque narrator giving us more detail than we need or want.

The whole setting and atmosphere was something-else I really liked. The cinematography and editing really helps to bring the time periods to life, and the flashbacks especially were well done. The costumes too helped tremendously, and they looked really great. The blending of the old clothing in the new age really helps to bring Adaline's character to light and reminds the audience that she is actually almost a century old.

 This film had so much potential, it could have become a classic. Yet it was messy, undeveloped and predictable. I was hoping to see the protagonist develop, struggle dealing with the pros and cons of her situation. I wanted to become her, to feel what she feels and root for her, forget it wasn't real life, especially when there was so much capacity for making the viewer emotional with the facts that she doesn't age when the rest of the world does, that her daughter will die and she'll have to be there to see it, or that she is torn between the father and the son, or that she has to keep her condition a secret. I didn't have the problem of her vintage clothing, which suited Lively and made her seem kind of nostalgic. The soundtrack was good, it worked well with the film. Now the biggest issue for me was the way they tried to combine the present and the past. It turned out to be a huge mess.

Anyways, enough complaining about what could have been. Even with its flaws, this was an enjoyable film. I was able to spot a few well chosen symbolic moments that may have been for the more well-versed, critical thinking viewers. As for Blake Lively, this was the first acting performance of hers that I have seen, and I was surprised by what a talented actress she is.

7.3/10·IMDb
54%·Rotten Tomatoes
51%·Metacritic
7/10-Verdict