Age of Adaline starring Blake Lively

The film, The Age of Adaline (2015), starring Blake Lively was very enjoyable for me because of the mature acting skills from both the more experienced actors and the younger ones. Directed by Lee Toland Krieger and co-starring Michiel Huisman as Ellis Jones, Harrison Ford as William Jones, and Ellen Burstyn as Flemming, this movie had a budget of $25,000,000 and was written by J. Mills Goodloe and Salvador Paskowitz.

Set in San Francisco, California, The Age of Adaline tells the story of 29-year-old Adaline Bowman, who is in a car accident in 1937 which, through a magical phenomenon, freezes her aging process. For the next nearly eighty years she lives as a 29-year-old, moving to a different area of the country every decade and changing her name and identity to avoid people finding out about her condition or the FBI accusing her of identity theft. The only person who truly knows Adaline is her daughter Flemming, who continues to age throughout the movie as Adaline stays twenty-nine. Now 107, Adaline meets Ellis Jones, who plays the love interest in the film. But when they go to visit his parents, she discovers that his father, William Jones, was her previous lover, back when he was younger. This plot twist complicates the relationships in the film and provides for the resolution, in which Adaline is in another car accident after trying to leave behind everything she knows yet again, which causes her to once more start aging, so the film ultimately has a bittersweet ending because she can live her life normally, but she will eventually get old and die.

Part of what really drew me into this movie was the elegant performance of Black Lively. She sustains an old-fashioned aura and poised personality throughout the movie, emulating an old woman in a young persons body. The directors vision for The Age of Adaline was inspired by two 1953 Marilyn Monroe films, How to Mary a Millionaire and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. This fact is made evident in the movie because of the witty, romantic dialogue between Adaline and Ellis. Marilyn Monroe elegance was also seen through the design of Livelys costumes and it distinctly showed each time period that the movie portrayed. A main focus of the film was to show Adalines sorrow over not being able to get close to anyone for fear that they would find out about her condition, and Blake Lively did an excellent job of being a strong independent woman with a secret that makes her very sad and lonely in reality. For example, Livelys character, Adaline, always has a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Each time one would die she would get a new one, and in one particular scene after one of these dogs dies, Adaline is crying as she is looking at a scrapbook of all the Cavalier King Charles Spaniels shes had through the years. This is not just meant to show her love for her dogs, but her desire to live a normal life and then die. It also shows her loneliness because these dogs are almost the only companions she has been able to have. She feels like the rest of the world is able to move on, while she is stuck in one spot. In addition, Michiel Huismans performance as a fun and carefree man balances well with Blake Livelys more reserved character. The two counteract each other well as he tries to get closer to her and she pushes away, and then her fa硤e ultimately falls away.

In conclusion, some critics thought it was a little over melodramatic and ludicrous, but some complimented the film, like Entertainment Weeklys Leah Greenblatt, who said that Lively did a nice job of conveying Adalines old-world diction and reserve. It was generally well-liked by audiences, people mostly receiving it as a beautiful, captivating film. I also though it was a meaningful story because of its final message that love is what makes a life fulfilling, and although the premise may be a little out there, the best movies are.

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