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MOVIE REVIEW

The Age of Adaline

MPA Rating: PG-13-Rating (MPA) for a suggestive comment.

Reviewed by: Samuel Chetty
CONTRIBUTOR

Moral Rating: Offensive
Moviemaking Quality:
Primary Audience: Adults
Genre: Romance Fantasy Drama
Length: 1 hr. 50 min.
Year of Release: 2015
USA Release: April 24, 2015 (wide—2,991 theaters)
DVD: August 4, 2015
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Relevant Issues

Originally, before sin and the curse, Adam and Eve, were designed to live forever. After the Fall, God denied mankind access to the Tree of Life.

In the time between the Fall and the Flood, some people still lived exceptionally long lives, e.g., Methuselah lived 969 years.

What causes people to age much more quickly since the Flood?

Due to fear, Adaline made great efforts to deceive good people into believing that she was normal.

truth

TRUE ETERNAL LIFE—What does the Bible say about it? Answer

about eternal death in the Bible

Featuring Harrison FordWilliam Jones
Blake LivelyAdaline Bowman
Michiel Huisman … Ellis Jones
Amanda CrewKiki
Richard Harmon … Tony
Ellen BurstynFlemming
Anjali Jay … Cora
Kathy Baker … Kathy Jones
Anthony Ingruber … Young William
Lynda Boyd … Regan
Toby Levins … Superintendant
Jane Craven … Miriam
Peter J. Gray … Clarence James Prescott
Chris William Martin … Dale Davenport
Aaron Craven … FBI Agent
See all »
Director Lee Toland Krieger — “Celeste and Jesse Forever” (2012)
Producer Lakeshore Entertainment
Sidney Kimmel Entertainment
Sierra / Affinity
Distributor
Distributor: Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. Trademark logo.
Lionsgate
(Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.)

“The world has changed in the last century. Adaline has not.”

“The Age of Adaline” tells the story of a young woman named Adaline (Blake Lively) who is born in the early 20th century and lives a normal life until the age of twenty-nine, when she is struck by lightning and becomes immortal through a supposedly scientific process. As the years go by, her appearance never ages. Her greatest difficulty from being immortal is something I did not anticipate, but it is a clever story element that I will let you find out if you watch the movie.

Being immortal causes her to face certain risks in society, and she keeps her immortality a secret, which deters her from getting married. But can she keep the secret or be willing to remain single forever?

Overall, this movie made a positive impression on me. The feel of the movie breaks the mould of a stereotypical romance drama. The movie carries a mysterious tone and a sense of anticipation without pretending to be something more epic than it actually is. The combination of flashbacks in the story, voice-overs, and serious-sounding dialog, with very few attempts at humor, contributed to this effect.

From a Biblical perspective, the theme which stood out to me most was about Adaline getting tired of running from relationships in order to keep her secret, and asking herself whether a life of deceit is a fulfilling life. It is often difficult for people to be willing to change their lifestyle, and I think the Bible acknowledges this. The Apostle Paul described a universal human situation by writing:

“I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me” (Romans 7:15-17 NRSV).

Many people carry a sense of guilt about certain matters but lack the drive to do much about it. But, we can trust in God to work in us “to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13 NRSV) so that our lives progressively become more in line with His will. And I believe that sometimes, when God works with us this way, changes come because we get increasingly exhausted with certain pursuits and become motivated to seek a new direction.

This movie may be unsuitable for some audiences due to the content described below, but if you are used to watching movies with such content, I think “The Age of Adaline” is worth seeing.

Objectionable Content

Sexuality: Three scenes of a man and woman in bed together. One of them had intercourse implied but no nudity shown, as they were under the sheets. The second scene was ambiguous due to the dark lighting, and in the third scene they were clothed. There are also at least seven innuendos pertaining to immodest touching or sexual activity.

Language: GD (1), OMG (4), “My G*d” (3), hell (5), damn (1), s-word (1), and one incomplete f-word.

Other: A road scene with speeding and weaving through traffic. Social drinking in at least seven scenes. The main character becomes immortal, but it is presented as a scientific result of a lightning strike.

Violence: Minor / Profanity: Moderate / Sex/Nudity: Moderate

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.


Viewer CommentsSend your comments
Positive
Positive—My wife and I saw this on Mother’s Day. We enjoyed the film. It was a beautifully shot film with attractive scenery. It was an interesting story that kept our attention all the way through. We enjoyed the ending.

Negatively, the couple is unmarried and has immoral sexual relations—though it is not a focus in the film. Also, their sleeping together at his parent’s home was accepted as normal. That was the worst aspect of the film.

We didn’t think the language was very objectionable. We don’t remember hearing the list of objectionable words mentioned in the review.

Conversely, Harrison Ford’s faithfulness to his wife—even with his past feelings for Adaline—is consistent with a biblical worldview. He is faithful to love his wife—no matter what had happened in the past. His vows to his wife meant something.

Adaline’s desire for love is shown in a compelling way. Her love for her daughter is paramount—yet she must be careful about becoming too known. The pace of the film was enjoyable—with a few surprises. This fantasy film was a fun day at the movies. Even with the few objections above, it was worth watching.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Better than Average / Moviemaking quality: 5
Ron, age 53 (USA)
Neutral
Neutral—Adeline is a woman who has stayed 29 since a freak accident, which has caused her to keep running the authorities and therefore from relationships as well. She meets a young man and falls in love and now has a dilemma. Her daughter is now a senior citizen and she is a young 29 year old. Harrison Ford was fantastic as usual and propped up an otherwise rather dismal film.

There is minimal swearing and no use of Jesus' name in vain, but the couple sleep together on the first date and throughout the movie.

I didn't find the leading man very attractive at all, and he looked quite untidy with greasy hair and a beard and mustache. He is not your “typical” leading man. I found some of the love scenes rather forced and also found myself chuckling when they mentioned the scientific explanation for how her age was frozen. Interesting, but I went with 2 co-workers who I don't believe are Christians, and they felt sort of meh about the movie as well. Somehow it was lacking some oomph and was rather slow in places.

My main beef was the pre-marital sex which made the movie somewhat offensive.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Average / Moviemaking quality: 4
KPJ, age 54 (Canada)
Neutral—This film has three things going for it: an interesting premise, it’s relatively clean, and Harrison Ford. His performance alone keeps me from giving this a negative review. To begin with, sometimes narration works in a movie. But in this case, it only pointed out information that could easily have been put in a better script or production.

***SPOILER*** Secondly, if a relationship with the young Harrison Ford character earlier in her life had meant anything, she would have remembered his last name and found it more than curious when a relationship with another man later in her life had the same last name. And I would liked to have seen more screen time spent on that relationship (with the young Ford character) making the big reveal more dramatic. ***END SPOILER***

I found the pace a little dull, and lastly, the fact that she had so many relationships took the romance out of what could’ve been a good date movie.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Average / Moviemaking quality: 3
Jeff, age 58 (USA)
Comments from young people
Positive—This movie was entirely interesting and completely captured my attention. It was offensive in some parts of the movie, but was not as bad as “Pitch Perfect 2”. The one bad point in the movie was that it implied that Adeline and Ellis had premarital sex more than once, which I don’t agree with, but it did not contain any scenes showing them having sex. I will mot reveal anymore about the movie, but will let the viewer see for them self. All in all, I definitely recommend this movie
My Ratings: Moral rating: Average / Moviemaking quality: 5
Mona, age 17 (USA)

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