The Age of Adaline (2015), PG-13, ★★1/2

Doesn't this photo remind you of Gossip Girl?

Think about this. How would it feel if you remain the same age forever? What age would you remain to be? There are pros as to being the same age but in my opinion, there are more cons because there are consequences to not just your life but the lives around you. However, how long does it take for someone to run away from his or her past to cover the truth? It is simply the premise of the film that has a potential good story behind the film. But, even though has some strong elements, there are the clichés and romantic storyline that hurt the movie by becoming a tighter and actually more memorable film.

Adaline Bowman (Blake Lively) is a woman in her 20s that is stuck in the world of purchasing fake IDs and is commented by someone that her age defines Adeline and could shave off a few years. We observe from the narration and her apartment that she had raised the same dog over and over again and when she opens her film reel, she explains her life. She was born in 1908, got married, had a child but became widowed after her husband had suffered an accident. Later, she also had a car accident via lighting strike and unexplainable snow falls onto her and she remained the same age.

It starts to become noticeable as her daughter (Ellen Burstyn) grows older. One day a cop pulls over and takes Adaline's ID as it says she's in her late 40s. She decides to move away and does a year of research at a medical college but they cannot explain her condition. FBI agents follow her and put her in a car and as she escapes, she decides to start running away having a new identity every decade.

She lives in Oregon now and it's New Year's Eve and she enters the hotel of a party. Adaline observes on a wall a photograph of her with her friends from many decades ago. She decides to find one of her friends and discovers that she is blind and has a conversation that her friend assumes they're both old ladies. Ellis Jones (Michael Huisman) walks into the room and makes conversations with Adaline but she politely turns him down repeatedly until he makes a bad joke so he can have a date with her.

Lively meeting with Harrison Ford. 

I actually liked this movie a lot more than I wanted to hate this film because I got so caught up with her story. However, even though, her story was of interest and pure emotion, there are some conventions that interfere with the film poorly conceived with ridiculous dialogue and stalk narration. I did not need to know how it began based on the dialogue. It would have been just to set up the scenes of what happened and provide some clues as we can try to think about what is going on. The first half of the film is what hurt the movie the most, but the second half really turns the movie around with depth and emotion and some complex character development which I cannot spoil.

Blake Lively is convincing as the titular character as she just blossoms with beauty but somehow I find it at times a bit superficial because of just men approaching. Speaking of which, Huisman has no chemistry with Lively as he is just there being handsome, turned down and repeating bad dialogue. He was one-note. Harrison Ford, in a supporting role, gives a very good performance, supposedly one of his best, as a man trying to identify with Adaline and that is all I can say about him. He provides emotional heft. Ellen Burstyn is also quite strong.

Because of the padded romantic clichés and bad dialogic narration in the beginning which was all in the first half of the film, it bored me, however, the second half saved the movie from being one of the worst films of the year to a decent rental. I cannot quite recommend the film but if I were to say to y'all, if you come in late to the theater about halfway through, you would see a pretty good movie. The movie looks sleek and crisp supported by a few strong performances, however, the conventions and execution is poorly constructed and thought of to interfere with what they have got as a potential good film.

**1/2