Avengers fans don’t kill me, but if I had my choice between Age Of Ultron and The Age Of Adaline, a splendid new romantic drama opening Friday, I just might choose Adaline. Guess I am just a romantic at heart but as I say in my video review above, this magical, quirkily original and beautifully acted love story is irresistible.
It’s almost like an elongated Twilight Zone episode merged with Somewhere In Time but at its core, it has its own beating heart. It’s one of those movies, illogical and fantastical in premise, that you either go with or you don’t. But if audiences can hang in there with it, the movie will represent a nice piece of counter-programming to that OTHER Age Of movie, the blockbuster from Marvel.
Blake Lively is perfectly cast as Adaline, a 29-year-old woman born around the beginning of the 20th century whose life takes a weird turn when her car lands in a watery ditch, where she seems to have drowned.
But she is miraculously brought back to life and we learn – in overwrought and not entirely necessary voiceover – that something medically incredible has happened to her and she has stopped in time. That’s right, Adaline never is going to age and the only person aware of this is her own daughter (played later in the film by Ellen Burstyn) who does age normally.
Given this temporal quirk, Adeline can’t stay in the same place more than a decade. Instead, she must keep changing her identity and look, all while living a life like no one has ever lived.
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But complications arise when a suitor (Michael Huisman) will not take no for an answer. Adaline falls for him, finally letting her guard down for the first time. In a visit with his parents (Harrison Ford and Kathy Baker), things really get weird and nice twists start occurring. Ford, by the way, is sensational in his best screen turn in a long while.
The movie was nicely directed by Lee Toland Krieger from a screenplay by J. Mills Goodloe & Salvador Paskowitz. Producers are Sidney Kimmel, Tom Rosenberg and Gary Lucchesi. Lionsgate is distributing.
Do you plan to see The Age Of Adaline? Watch my review and let us know what you think.
