The Age of Adaline: Movie Review

Director Lee Toland Krieger’s “The Age of Adaline” is a beautifully shot film and features a terrific cast. Unfortunately those are the two best compliments I can give this utterly boring romantic-fantasy. Things start off very promisingly but then the story drags along, nearly putting me to sleep.

Adaline Bowman (Blake Lively) was born in 1908 and while in her twenties, a freak accident made her immortal. As the people around her would get older (including her daughter), Adaline would not age. Because of her condition, she had to leave her life behind. Every 10 years Adaline would change her name and move somewhere else. Eventually coming back home to San Francisco so she could be close to her daughter (Ellen Burstyn).

In the present day Adaline goes by the name Jennifer and despite not allowing herself to get close to anyone, a young historian named Ellis (Michiel Huisman) catches her attention. As much as she tries to fight it, Adaline eventually succumbs to Ellis’s charms. Things get a bit shaky though when Adaline goes with Ellis to his parents for the weekend for their 40th anniversary, only to learn that Ellis’s father William (Harrison Ford) was her last true love.

I really wanted to like “The Age of Adaline”, but despite the impressive work from Krieger, the main cast didn’t do much more me. Blake Lively was anything but lively and it is understandable. Her character is more than 100 years old and stuck in the body of a 30 year old. At the same time, her daughter is too old to make it up a flight of stairs. The kind of life would definitely not make person happy. Huisman is fine but I could never understand what his character sees in Adaline.

Even with the few positives, “Age of Adaline” is just not worth recommending.

By: Marc Ferman