3 stars (out of 5)
Much as you might try to dislike, or even loathe, this girly tearjerker from director Lee Toland Krieger (of Celeste & Jesse Forever), there’s an elaborate, honey-hued romanticism here that just about keeps you swept up in the goofiness of it all, even if star Blake Lively can’t quite carry it.
An unseen narrator (Hugh Ross) introduces us to seemingly lonely librarian Jenny (Blake) in 2014 San Francisco, only we know that she’s actually Adaline Bowman, who’s 107 years old and was rendered immortal after a freak accident. However, Jenny/Adaline hasn’t benefitted from never getting old and has lived a long life of forced relocations, faked identities, FBI investigations and general fear, with only her now-80something daughter Flemming (Ellen Burstyn) knowing her mysterious secret. But all that looks set to change when she meets the nice, rich (naturally) and slightly stalky Ellis Jones (Michiel Huisman) at a New Year’s party, and she feels that she might just be able to give her heart away (sigh), and even agrees to join him for a weekend in the country to celebrate his parents’ 40th wedding anniversary. And said parents are played by Kathy Baker and Harrison Ford, who surprisingly cuts through his customary grumpiness and delivers the movie’s best, saddest performance (no, really).
A ‘Woman’s Picture’ (although these days they call it a ‘Chick Flick’), Krieger’s film has a sense of high, swoony drama that rather distracts from the fact that Lively isn’t quite up to it, making Adaline chillier and more distant than she should be, even if she does look great in the vintage outfits. Scarlett Johansson, Olivia Wilde, January Jones and others could have brought more mystery, tragedy and, yes, humour to the role, but Blake prefers to play it like Katharine Hepburn on an off day. And with a cold.
I Wake Up Screening 