Movie Review – The Age of Adaline

The movie opens with Adaline (Blake Lively) obtaining several fake ID’s from a young man named Tony, she thanks him and calls him Jack. The young man is puzzled, but Adaline had seen an autographed baseball made out to “Jack.” She tells him to be careful of the little details; skills that Adaline has picked up since she discovered her “condition.” We later see her looking through old film reels and an overhead Twilight Zone-esque voice over (Hugh Ross) begins chronicling her backstory. Adaline Bowman was born in 1908, the first baby of the New Year. The narrator jumps ahead to the 1930’s where she has married her husband Clarence Prescott, and has had a daughter named Fleming. We learn Adaline lost her husband through tragic circumstances, which in turn leads to the premise of the film: Adalines accident.

Snow, having fallen for the first time that year in San Francisco, impairs Adeline’s vision causing her to run off the road into a freezing lake. Her heart stops beating. In that same moment a lightning bolt strikes resulting in her condition.

The movie then takes the viewer through a magical, mysterious journey. The people around Adaline start questioning why she and her teen daughter look like sisters. Police officials don’t buy that she is 45, like her license clearly specifies. The authorities begin to catch on and Adaline runs, reinventing herself with different identities in hopes that she won’t become some sort of scientific experiment.

In present day San Francisco, Adaline’s latest alias, Jennifer Larson, lives her life working in a library. Her only friend is a woman named Kathy; she is blind and believes Jennifer is her real age. Jennifer and Kathy end up at a New Year’s Eve party where she is hesitant to be there upon seeing pictures of herself hanging on the walls. She does not like to have her photograph taken in hopes of concealing her life-long secret. There she meets a well-to-do philanthropist Ellis Jones (Michiel Huisman) and they begin dating. Ellis takes Jennifer to meet his parents and that’s where her past and present collide. William (Harrison Ford), Ellis’s father, turns out to be a long lost love interest of Adaline.

Blake Lively brings a captivating performance in the strongest role of her career. She shines as the lead, bringing vibrancy and charm to a character that is facing adversities out of her control. Her voice inflections and quick wit brought life to the character.

Michiel Huisman plays Jennifer/Adaline’s love interest Ellis. The Game of Throne’s actor showed his determination to win Jennifer’s affection and the chemistry between them is sweet enough to work, it just wasn’t electrifying. Harrison Ford, while not featured as much, plays his part very well. He is a nostalgic and bewildered man struggling to let go of his past with Adaline so that she may have a future with his son.

The Age of Adaline blends fantasy and romance perfectly. The cinematography is gorgeous. Costume design (Blake was rumored to have a hand in) blends a perfect mix of vintage and modern pieces. It’s a feel good movie that will make audiences laugh and cry. It’s comparable to a Nicholas Sparks film that this viewer will someday have in her collection.

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