Friday, May 29, 2015

The Age of Adaline (Rhoades)

Front Row at the Movies
“The Age of Adaline” Stops the Clocks
Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades
I just celebrated a birthday (don’t ask), but I’m not as old as the eponymous title character in “The Age of Adaline.” Adaline Bowman is 107.
People say I look younger than my actual chronology, but Adaline has me beat there too. She’s stuck at the age of 29.
 
Unlike Benjamin Button who aged backward or Dorian Gray whose youth depended on a spooky painting, our girl Adaline (played by Blake Lively) does not change her age at all. Having died in
frigid water when her automobile ran off the road, and being revived a la Frankenstein by a lightning strike, she is cursed with perpetual youth.
Before you protest that this doesn’t sound so bad, think about what it would mean as your loved ones grow old and die while you remain wrinkle-free. C’mon, you know you’d be upset.
 
Yes, this is a problem movie vampires share, eternity without growing older. But Adaline isn’t a fanged bloodsucker; merely a freak of nature.
 
Forced to go on the run when the FBI shows interest in her condition, Adaline faces numerous social challenges. How do you explain to a cop who pulls you over that you really are the 40-year-old woman on your driver’s license when you look so young? How do you convince an old beau (Harrison Ford) that you’re the “daughter” of the woman he once loved? How do you deal with your own daughter (Ellen Burstyn) when she becomes older than you? How do you deal with a new love (Michiel Huisman) when you’re pretty sure you’ll outlive him and all his Trivial-Pursuit-playing friends?
 
This is a problem even Dear Abby couldn’t solve. But screenwriters J. Mills Goodloe and Salvador Paskowitz manage to solve it with a little help from director Lee Toland Krieger.
 
This time-out-of-joint movie is a nice way to waste 112 minutes if you’ve got the time to spare.
 

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