One snowy night in Fremont, California, Adaline Bowman (Blake Lively) nearly died in a car accident. Through a bizarre series of events played out on a cosmic scale, she awoke, ceasing to be impacted by time. She will remain the age of 29 forever.
For nearly eight decades she lived this way, staying youthful, constantly on the run from suspicious minds and changing her alias. She devised a guideline to protect herself: never get close to anyone for fear of them discovering her secret. However, a chance encounter with Ellis Jones (Michiel Huisman) revives Adaline’s lost sense of life and romance, bringing her to question the boundaries she set ages ago. Lively portrays her character in a way to make the audience feel compassionate toward her and intrigues the audience with what possibilities lay in her future.
Directed by Lee Toland Krieger, this film executes a heartfelt romance with a tragic twist, one leaving viewers with no perception as to how a story such as this can have a happy ending. Lively’s character of Adaline lives in terror of love and heartbreak. She believes there is no point in love if there is no growing old together. Lively’s portrayal of Adaline’s character makes it easy for the audience to feel compassion for her. Meeting Ellis challenges this.
The storyline brings up several questions of life, time and what it means to be human. How does one live a full life when there is no limit to the time given to that life? In the time Adaline spent being consumed by protecting herself from discovery, she forgot how to live.
One fateful weekend spent at Ellis’s parent’s house reawakens past memories. The truth is threatened by exposure and Adaline is forced to make a decision that may change her life forever.
Though the film ends in cliché and is somewhat predictable, it proved entertaining and worthy of the watch. Viewers will enjoy the romantic tension between both main characters and feel the struggles of living an eternal life, remembering history as a piece of one’s personal past. The film presents a strong display of prominent life questions, those the average person would hastily overlook.
Adaline’s story will have viewers holding tight to hope for the future, time and love.
