Delayed Reaction: The Age of Adaline

Premise: Blake Lively is a woman who stopped aging in the early 20th century and opens herself up to love again in the modern day.

 

Hold on. This wasn't based on a book?! That is the most surprising thing I've heard in a while. Everything about this movie plays like it was a novel from the same person who wrote The Time-Traveler’s Wife. The narration at the begin and end is totally the move of a book adaptation that doesn't know how else to sneak in some exposition. In fact, I'm still not convinced that this is an original screenplay. Until you can physically show me that no book exists, I refuse to believe that this isn't an adaptation of a New York Times best seller. I mean, even The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was based on a short story. A.I. Artificial Intelligence was as least partly inspired by a short story. Bicentennial Man was a novel too.

 

I am going to need a minute to get over this shock. Given the number of movies I've already referenced, The Age of Adaline is a very familiar story, even if I can't read it in my local library. It taps into the fear and loneliness of seeing all your loved ones die. I think every screenwriter is required by law to write at least a draft of a story like this once both of their parents have died. So, I didn't watch this movie expecting to be wowed by how clever the premise was. In fact, I audibly groaned when it got around to the "science" of how Adaline got her long life. What would make this movie a success or failure were the performances and how well it captured Adaline's loneliness.

 

Blake Lively is really good in this movie. I've always liked Blake Lively in the sense that she's an attractive actress who shows up in movies I like. I think it's time for a reevaluation of her though. Is she building to something bigger? I hear she carries the thriller The Shallows. She's perfectly used in A Simple Favor. In The Age of Adaline, I believed she was a 100-year-old woman in a Blake Lively skinsuit. She carries herself like someone living out of time, even though she's still just a scared woman making the best of her situation. She has good chemistry with Michiel Huisman, who, I guess Hollywood just gave up on turning into a leading man now. I enjoy the oddness of Harrison Ford showing up. I don't understand how that man picks roles. And I need to give a quick shout out to Anthony Ingruber who does a spooky good young Harrison Ford impression in a few scenes.

 

I appreciate how the movie flips midway through. I would've been fine with the movie that it was in the first hour: Adaline opens herself up emotionally to Huisman's Ellis and struggles with her secret. Upending it in the second half with the discovery that she used to love his father when he was younger was great. Ford really plays that shock well. I think the movie could've done a little more with the oddness of the situation, and I even would've liked to spend some more time with a "younger" Adaline and Ford's character. It's a nice wrinkle though. I'm kind of sad the trailer gave it away.

 

Verdict: Weakly Recommend