Film Review: The Age of Adaline

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The Age of Adaline. Rated M (mature themes and sexual references). 113 minutes. Directed by Lee Toland Krieger. Screenplay by J. Mills Goodloe and Salvador Paskowitz.

Verdict: A fascinating and deeply engaging film about a life flooded with too many memories.

When Adaline Bowman (Blake Lively) becomes immune to the process of ageing as a result of a car accident and metaphysical cosmic influences, she finds herself on the run from the authorities who are determined to exploit the miracle of her eternal youth.

Before she is frozen in time in 1935 (aged 27), Adaline has married her sweetheart Clarence (Peter Gray), had a daughter, Flemming (the magnificent Ellen Burstyn), before she is tragically widowed – destined to spend the rest of her life with too many memories that the passing of time will never allow to fade. When she meets philanthropist Ellis (Game of Thrones’ Michiel Huisman), Adaline believes that this new relationship might represent the opportunity to share the truth about her unusual life with her devoted new soulmate. But when Fate plays its final, cruel hand, their future together suddenly becomes almost too fragile to survive.

It is this fascinating premise that provides The Age of Adaline with its epic, romantic and dramatic sweep. The flashbacks to the 1930s, masterfully edited by Melissa Kent (The Vow), also benefit from the sublime period costuming by Australian costume designer Angus Strathie and Claude Paré’s (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) production design.

Lively and Huisman are perfectly matched as the star-crossed lovers, and Lively (who is hardly ever off-screen), rises beautifully to the complex emotional demands asked of her. But it is Harrison Ford’s performance as Ellis’ father, William, that remains the highlight. For years now, Ford has been trapped in ‘reluctant action man’ territory, and the performance that Krieger captures from him here is simply the best work Ford has done for a very, very long time.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.