The Age of Adaline (2015)
A film that imagines an ageless life?
This will be a short one, and it’s for Mama, who loves this film of magical realism. What, pray tell, you might be asking, is magical realism? Well, briefly, it’s a genre that blends together and even blurs the lines between reality and fantasy. The characters can be totally realistic and believable at the same time that extraordinary or even magical things happen to them. Ellie Trotta’s book, A Garden in Eden, is a perfect example of this: Five friends in small-town America find themselves entering, and reentering every five years, a garden that throws them back to age ten for just one day.
But back to The Age of Adaline…. This one also defies the natural laws that govern the universe. Adaline Bowman (Blake Lively) is living a relatively normal life until a car accident, in the middle of a snowstorm, itself defying weather norms for Sonoma County, California. She dies, but then lightening strikes—literally—and she comes back to life. Except this “life” is one that cannot age. It is a “life” that stands still. The body is in suspense. Her true self and her mind, of course, do age, but the body is someone in a state of suspension. On the surface of things, it might seem to be an ideal scenario. To live forever without the indignity and the suffering that typically accompany the aging process! It comes with a heavy price, though. It will be noticed, though never comprehended. She had to keep changing her identity. She moved from place to place to avoid attracting attention to her incomprehensible situation. She had a daughter who was entirely sympathetic, but naturally, this daughter kept aging well beyond Adaline’s suspended age. They had to meet carefully and under the pretense that the daughter (Ellen Burstyn) was really the mother, and eventually grandmother! Forget about the dating scene! Remarriage and (more) kids? No way! Aging “gracefully” with your soulmate? Dream on! It is so much worse than The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) because even he got to experience all the stages of the usual human timeline. Reverse must be better than neutral, surely? These sorts of stories are so useful in helping us to rethink what it means to live well. Living, after all, is changing.
It’s true that Adaline was always dynamic in her mind. She was an old soul and a wise mind trapped in a hot young body. You might think, Oh wow! But life was still painful and full of loss, and she had to keep going through it without advancing to any other stage. Imagine watching your daughter become your grandmother! It’s an incredible story—it could never happen—and yet it’s an awesome way to get a powerful point across. Life is painful, but the joys of living are inextricable from the growing pains. Suffering, too, cannot be avoided by making a life ageless. The plot of The Age of Adaline does not defy the logic of that statement. We see Adaline in continual suffering over her inability to commit in a relationship or have anything to resemble a settled existence. Suburbia is impossible for a person who cannot age alongside her neighbors. Hence, her life is largely played out in the anonymity of the metropolis. She falls in love twice: first with William (Harrison Ford) and then with his future son (Michiel Huisman.)
I won’t spoil the ending, but I will simply assure you that is a satisfying one. Visually, the whole movie is a pleasing experience. Casting wise, I give it five stars. Mama was amazed by Ellen Burstyn’s performance. I enjoyed the way Harrison Ford was able to defy normal Hollywood standards about the “love interest.” I’ve enjoyed everything he’s ever done, from Han Solo (duh) to Indiana Jones, Jack Ryan, and Richard Kimble (The Fugitive, 1993.) What Lies Beneath (2000) is a longtime favorite of mine—brilliant cast (Harrison Ford, Michelle Pfeiffer, Diana Scarwid, Miranda Otto) besides screenplay, and, similar to The Age of Adaline, supernatural-ish plot.