{"id":1277,"date":"2017-09-06T09:00:50","date_gmt":"2017-09-06T13:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.silvercentury.org\/2017\/09\/the-age-of-adaline\/"},"modified":"2018-09-03T08:09:15","modified_gmt":"2018-09-03T12:09:15","slug":"the-age-of-adaline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/2017\/09\/the-age-of-adaline\/","title":{"rendered":"The Age of Adaline"},"content":{"rendered":"

2015, USA, 112 min.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Old age is frequently viewed as a flaw, as if those over 45 are incapable of enjoying life because they\u2019re too slow, too jaded, too everything. The Age of Adaline<\/em> scoffs at that notion. This charming, romantic fable doesn\u2019t venerate youth, even though its title character has been a beautiful young woman for nearly 80 years.<\/p>\n

Due to a scientific hiccup after a car accident, the title character (Blake Lively) is immune to the ravages of time. She looks 29 when she emerges from a car accident in 1937, and she looks 29 in 2015 when she\u2019s chronologically 107. It is not a wonderful life. Every decade she changes her name and relocates to stay one step ahead of the curious. Adaline is too busy constantly rebuilding a life to have a meaningful one of her own. Connections? Please. Her photo album is filled with photos of her dogs. Even Adaline\u2019s friendships appear calculated: her best friend is blind.  <\/p>\n

Adaline, now named Jenny, is set to move again when she meets Ellis (Michiel Huisman), a hunky philanthropist who is hopelessly smitten. He\u2019s persistent but charming and patient. It\u2019s understandable why Adaline succumbs. More importantly, we understand why Ellis is enchanted: he wants to pierce the aura. Director Lee Toland Krieger and his writers frame Adaline in her own mystique. Her clothes don\u2019t mark her of this time. She speaks in a cadence that\u2019s a notch or two below a heroine in a screwball comedy.<\/p>\n

Lively\u2019s limitations as an actress benefit the movie. The role requires an obvious fa\u00e7ade, and Lively\u2019s delicate, almost immovable beauty doubles as a mask to hide years of pain. We don\u2019t blame Ellis for wanting to dig deeper. So do we. We don\u2019t know Adaline. Why should we? She\u2019s never gotten a chance to know herself. That\u2019s going to change. Adaline tells her daughter (Ellen Burstyn) that she\u2019s ready to live. Adaline commits to Ellis, even spending a weekend with his family. Immediately, Adaline is at risk. She knew Ellis\u2019 father (Harrison Ford) in one of her past lives, and he has not forgotten her.<\/p>\n

This is the movie\u2019s best stretch, and Ford, who is engaged for the first time in who knows how long, carries it. He conveys every emotional ache in his action: a jittery pour of booze, his frazzled reaction in meeting \u201cJenny.\u201d You see him putting the pieces together in every scene. The past has literally come to his doorstep, forcing Adaline to make another in a life full of tough decisions.<\/p>\n

The Age of Adaline<\/em> isn\u2019t about lovers in turmoil or a chronological quirk. It\u2019s really about the beauty of getting older. We learn to let people in and let emotions out. We embrace who we are. That\u2019s something you learn as you age, which is why Adaline struggles. She has perspective but nowhere to take it. We watch in the hope that Adaline gains what we already have\u2014and if she finds love along the way, even better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Old age is frequently viewed as a flaw, as if those over 45 are incapable of enjoying life because they\u2019re too slow, too jaded, too everything.<\/p>\n

Read more The Age of Adaline<\/span> ›<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n

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