THE AGE OF ADALINE – The review

What would you do if life stood still? Now I’m not talking about the world continually frozen, like a projector stuck on one frame of film (maybe a better modern analogy would be a DVD unable to move past an image, perhaps with that annoying “buffer circle” spinning). I mean what if you, yourself, never changed and remained your current age forever. No wrinkles, no grey hairs, and no internal breakdowns (the plumbing works fine, muscles and joints in great shape). That’s been one of the major benefits of vampirism (like the eternal ten-year old Kirsten Dunst in INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE), a theme of fairy tales (SLEEPING BEAUTY), and science fiction (THE MAN WHO CHEATED DEATH, the COCOON flicks). Now comes a film that plays with that notion in a more modern, realistic fashion. Call it a modern romantic fable, or the ultimate May-December love story. Or you might just call most of the 20th century (and a good chunk of the early 21st) THE AGE OF ADALINE.

A somber narrator introduces us to Jenny (Blake Lively), a modern-day twenty-something running an important errand on this New Year’s Eve of 2014 in San Francisco. She’s paying a young computer hacker (in cash, of course) for an impeccable set of phony ID’s (passport, driver’s licence, etc.) that Jenny will use when she leaves town and starts over once more. Wha? But first, it’s off to her job , as a historian archiving research materials at the main library. As she threads some early news film into a 16mm projector (see the previous reference), the narrator returns to give us some info on Ms Jenny. For one thing, her name is actually Adaline Bowman and she was born in SF…in 1908! In the early 30’s she married one of the Golden Gate Bridge engineers and birthed a daughter, Flemming. After her husband’s death on the job, Adaline’s cruising down a lonely stretch of California country road when it suddenly begins to snow. This contributes to the skid that sends her roadster plummeting into a cold lake. Hypothermia leads to heart stoppage, but remarkably she is revived when the sinking car is struck by lightning. But the bolt has an unexpected side effect, Adaline never ages a day. As Flemming matures, Adaline passes her off as a kid sister. It looks like the ruse will work until federal agents attempt to whisk her away (for experiments, no doubt). After a narrow escape, mother and daughter must separate, as Adaline goes into hiding, changing her identity every ten years, but still keeping in secret contact with Flemming. So, that explains the errand.

That night, after a quick phone call with Flemming (Ellen Burstyn) who now goes by Jenny’s grandma’, Adaline reluctantly joins a friend for a New Year’s bash at a local swanky hotel. She successfully swats away suitors, until he walks in, the hunky Ellis Jones (Michiel Huisman). After a flirtatious elevator ride to the lobby, Adaline believes she has given him the big “brush off”. But Mr. Jones is not so easily thwarted. A few days later, she’s stunned when Ellis arrives at her job with a big donation to the facility (guy’s rich!). This begins a series of tentative romantic encounters that make Adaline anxious. Reluctantly she agrees to accompany Ellis to a big 40th anniversary celebration for his parents (Harrison Ford, Kathy Baker). But on this journey, Adaline’s past may finally catch up to her.

Ms. Lively rarely evokes her name as the film’s title heroine. Adaline is muted, very low energy, perhaps in order to blend into her surroundings as to not stand out (and she avoids being photographed which reminded me of Bill Bixby as the TV Hulk). This is prominent in her push/pull relationship with Ellis which extinguishes any sparks between the two. She does look fabulous in all the different hairstyles and fashions during the flashbacks, but besides her fugitive double life, Adaline is an enigma. Huisman fulfills all his leading man requirements (including the now obligatory “chick flick” staple of emerging dripping wet from the shower AKA  the “beefcake” shot), but we see his passion for Jenny/Adaline without really explaining it. This guy should have a thick “black book”, so why has he set his sights on the woman who often pushes him away (maybe he enjoys a “challenge”). Burstyn makes Blessing more of a supportive girlfriend than daughter (think Rhoda Morgenstern) often encouraging Mom to “go with it” and take a chance. And she’s a good sounding board and confident for the usually tight-lipped Adaline. Ford takes a detour from his recent run of “old grumps” to give us a man both content with his golden years while still more than a bit haunted by his past (that silver goatee helps pad his years). In a couple of flashbacks, his character is played by you tube star Anthony Ingrub whose impression of the screen icon often distractingly veers into “Rich Little-like” mimicry. Unfortunately Baker has little to do as the perplexed, annoyed matriarch.

Lee Toland Krieger’s direction has difficulty keeping up a consistent momentum, which may leave viewers to feel as though they’ve lived all of 107 years. The early century set-up is fascinating, but the drama gets too bogged down by the narration (maybe they should have heeded the anti-voiceover rants in BEING JOHN MALKOVICH), that uses some silly pseudoscientific “gobbledy goop” to explain Adaline’s plight/gift. That’s another reason why the script by J. Mills Goodloe and Salvadore Paskowitz should have gone through a couple more passes. Some unnecessary flashbacks slow the pace (a visit to the bank brings up a memory, as does a glance at a certain park bench) There’s too much dead time during which we ponder the story’s logic. How could Adaline escape the FBI so easily? Why then would she continue to live in the states? Did J Edgar’s men concentrate instead on Dick Clark (he looked 25 for many, many decades)? As the film finally plods to its conclusion, a couple of outrageous coincidences almost prove laughable (I heard a few titters). THE AGE OF ADALINE could have been a compelling journey with one unchanging lady through the eras, instead it’s part tepid love story and part modern “fractured fairy tale”.

2 Out of 5