Whenever I find a movie that looks like both my wife and I can enjoy it, I jump at the chance. I like stories with a fantastic element and she likes romance and drama. The previews indicated that “The Age of Adaline” had both, so we gave it a chance.
After a freak accident in 1937, at twenty-nine years old, Adaline stops aging and lives the next seventy-eight years on the run, moving from one identity to another to keep from being discovered. This is all explained by an unidentified narrator.
I typically don’t like narration in movies. The medium is visual and the story should be told this way. The narration tries to be both scientific and magical at the same time. It gives the chemical, physical and sometimes astronomical explanation of what is happening, but in a tone that feels like a fairy tale. I think it could have been done well without the narration, but it worked with the tone of the film.
The story isn’t fast paced. There is very little physical action. The tension comes from Adaline’s choice of whether to keep running or to let herself love someone else forever. But for Adaline, forever has real meaning. Anyone she stayed with would grow old and die as she stayed young.
The story works. It revolves around a fairly big coincidence, but it’s not that unbelievable to have a coincidence occur in a hundred years of life.
Harrison Ford has a role in the film and he’s the reason I was willing give it the chance of seeing it in the theaters. He has never disappointed me and he didn’t this time. He’s a huge star. He’s play Indiana Jones and Han Solo, but he’s still convincing in the role of an ordinary man. He plays the leading man’s father, but I think Ford ends up carrying the film. His character has the most heartbreaking realization and choice to make.
My wife and I both liked the film and I’d recommend it for couples who have trouble finding movies that they can both enjoy.