The Age of Adaline
Director: Lee Toland Krieger
Writer: J. Mills Goodloe, Salvador Paskowitz
Cast: Blake Lively, Michiel Huisman, Harrison Ford, Ellen Burstyn, Kathy Baker, Amanda Crew, Lynda Boyd
Seen on: 9.7.2015

Plot:
After an accident Adaline (Blake Lively) has stopped aging. Fearing experiments done on her and persecution, she spent her life hiding and running so that nobody will notice that fact. Only her daughter Flemming (Ellen Burstyn), who by now looks like Adaline’s grandmother, knows the truth. But then Adaline meets Ellis (Michiel Huisman). He’s good-looking, charming, nice and rich, and has fallen head over heels for Adaline. She will now have to decide: does she keep running or does she risk people really getting to know her.

The Age of Adaline is just as cheesy as it looks and sounds – and very nice in all that kitsch.

The movie’s biggest problem is the voice-over narration. Voice overs are risky business. Very often they prove distracting or overbearing and when they aren’t annoying, more often than not, they just don’t bother me. It is rare that a voice over actually adds something valuable to a film (I can’t think of one example at the moment). The Age of Adaline’s narration certainly isn’t one of those. Quite apart from the fact that I would have preferred a magical explanation to such a ridiculous scientific one, it was just too aggravting in tone. Fortunately it is not present in all scenes of the film, or its slightly whimsical, pseudo-scientific demeanor might have well made me want to strangle somebody.

Even though that isn’t the only part of the film that doesn’t quite work as intended. I couldn’t quite follow Ellis’ fascination with and the quick depth of his feelings for Adaline; nor did I appreciate that he basically stalks Adaline at the beginning and then uses his professional position to coerce her into a date. That is not romantic, that is deeply problematic. Thankfully, after that rocky start, their romance proceeds nicely.

And I was very pleasantly surprised by the father-son-Adaline-triangle (that is already shown in the trailer, unfortunately – it would have been better had it remained a reveal during the film): I thought that would be only awkward, but they did pull it off, which is mostly due to the fact that Ellis’ father William (Harrison Ford) is not jealous or interested in Adaline at all anymore: he just wants his son to be happy. It just proves that your first love really doesn’t have to be your only love, nor does it have to have a hold on you forever.

Generally it is an enjoyable film that is perfectly suited to curling up with somebody on a lazy day, when you really don’t want to think about anything much.

Summarizing: Nice and sweet.