The Age of Adaline is Lee Toland Kriege’s fourth full-length directorial work. He is known for The Vicious Kind (2009), for which he won the Denver International Film Festival Emerging Filmmaker Award, and Celeste and Jesse Forever (2012). The film marks the end of a three-year screen hiatus for Blake Lively (after the end of Gossip Girl). She stars opposite Michiel Huisman, from Game of Thrones. Furthermore, the film offers a surprising and stirring performance by Harrison Ford.
The film is a romantic drama anchored by aspects of magical realism. It recounts the peculiar story of Adaline Bowman. In 1935, Adaline is a twenty-nine year old widowed single mother that suffers a terrible car accident. Unbeknownst to her and due to incredible circumstances the accident renders her ageless and she will continue being twenty-nine forever. As a result of moving and changing her identity every decade Adeline lives a solitary life for almost eight decades until she meets Ellis.
The cinematography and costume design are enjoyable. The aerial and crowded city shots of San Francisco highlight recognizable parts of the city in a way that do not feel tourist-like. Adeline’s wardrobe is a mixture and balance of vintage yet modern styles that allude to the different periods she has lived through.
Yet, while the film is a drama, a romance, and arguably a period piece, it is primarily a work of magical realism. The way this is handled unfortunately hinders the audience’s necessary suspension of disbelief. The use of voiceover narration for scientific reasoning is a distracting constant reminder that a story is being told and explained.
The issue is not so much that there is voiceover narration; it is that it is used to legitimize the magical elements in the story. What this accomplishes in the end is to point out to the viewer how unreasonable and unlikely this story is. The possibility of belief in film works best when a film pulls the viewer into the world of the film, when it lets viewers experience the realities of that world.
Christianity seems this way sometimes too. Digging deeper and deeper into the historicity of the Old Testament, or seeking scientific explanations for biblical events, may shake our beliefs. As we attempt to rationalize the Bible or the Gospel, we forget that miracles happen because of faith. In this world, things appear reasonable, true, or real because they are within our logic; God lets us tangibly experience truth and the reality of who God is when we believe that He has the power to make the extraordinary happen. So, we believe knowing that we don’t have to understand God’s immense power. We believe because we have faith, ‘the substance of things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen.” (Heb.11:1)
The film also places high importance on romantic love. When speaking to her daughter, Adaline mentions, “It’s not the same when there is no growing old together, without that, love is just heartbreak.” In Genesis, God creates man and woman out of the same flesh, to be “joined and become one flesh,” (Gn. 2:24) but most importantly, God made both because “it is not good for man to be alone” (Gn. 2:18). God made us as relational beings. Thus, we yearn for a lasting romantic relationship, but we cannot forget that the most important relationship we ought to have is with God.
As a result of our relationship with God, we begin showing God’s love to others, witnessing and asking the Spirit work in people’s lives. That is part of who we are as Christians. With all her time, Adeline improved herself, traveled, and learned languages, but she did not do much for others. I hope we can use our time on earth more wisely and lovingly not just seeking to be loved by another but sharing God’s love and making a difference in people’s lives and building others up in Christ.
Being loved is important for everyone, God created us with that desire and along with that desire comes the ability to love God and others. We must not let the desire for one with whom to “grow old together” overpower our lives. After all, man and woman were not just created for each other, but to fulfill God’s purpose together.
