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SOMETIMES, the best films are the ones that take you completely by surprise. If you’ve been following this column for the past month or so, you will likely have noticed I’ve been less than enthused about my weekly cinema jaunts.
After leaving this week’s choice in the hands of a friend (always a risky business), and being informed that the decision was of the ‘romance’ genre, I feared the worst again. However, The Age of Adaline turned out to be a compelling and thought-provoking experience.
The film’s title refers to lead character Adaline Bowman (Lively), who is 107-years-old, but has the body and looks of a 29-year-old thanks to a spectacular Sci-Fi-influenced car accident/lightning strike hybrid some 80 years prior.
Unable to find anything to explain her condition, a run-in with suspicious FBI officers leads her to live the life of a nomad to avoid becoming a medical curiosity. Every 10 years, she changes her identity and moves to a different city, shunning all advances and relationships.
One evening at a party, Adaline meets Ellis Jones (Huisman) and it quickly becomes apparent that both are attracted to each other and after much deliberation, Adaline agrees to meet Ellis’ parents. However, unbeknown to her, his father William (Ford) recognises her from his youth and threatens to unravel all she has strived to hide for almost a century.
What makes the film stand out is that the focus is never on the lovey-dovey stuff and instead shifts its attention to mortality. Most people might say they want to look young forever, but when this means that everyone and everything you love and care for grows old and dies in front of your eyes, growing old yet happy is not as unappealing a prospect.
Although the agelessness could have been explored more – Adaline’s main regret is that she hasn’t been able to fall in love for so long, and the film never really offers an insight into other facets of this condition – it certainly provokes thought from the viewer that perhaps growing old isn’t so bad, and we should appreciate what we do have around us rather than thinking about the future.
The movie is helped by very strong performances. Lively is stunning as Adaline, and handles her role as the film’s emotional fulcrum very well. The weight of her years of solitude break through via facial expressions and actions, if not wrinkles and grey hairs.
Huisman has the soft charm and dashing looks to make a believable object worth breaking decades of discipline for, but it’s actually Ford who steals the show. Although he’s up there with Sean Bean in my list of acting heroes (he’s Han Solo and Indiana Jones for crying out loud), it’d be impossible to deny his recent output has been underwhelming, living off his name through phoned-in performances.
Far from being wheeled out here for a brief moment of thigh-slapping recognition, he delivers a subtle and emotional performance as a conflicted man with some deep and hurtful memories of the past that have suddenly come back to haunt him.
I’d also like to point out that the film has a cracking soundtrack, featuring a plethora of classics stretching back through Adaline’s elongated lifetime. Hearing strains of Jefferson Airplane and Bob Dylan peppered throughout was a rewarding and uplifting experience.
Although the ending is pretty predictable and the consequences of agelessness could have been explored more thoroughly, this is an entertaining and engrossing romp that is much more thrilling than it looks, helped by fantastic acting from all parts.
