The Age of Adaline (2015)

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"I've never seen a less involving movie become so compelling at the exact moment when you've resigned to write it off as just okay" (www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-age-of-adaline-2015)

The Age of Adaline is a fantasy romance based on a science-fiction-y premise. It's not your average superheroine movie, not by a long shot, but it's worth watching if you enjoy a glimpse of superheroine-ess in mainstream movies.

Adaline, played by Blake Lively, is a beautiful woman born in 1908. She marries, has a daughter, but when her husband dies in 1937 she accidentally runs off a bridge with her car. Nearly brought to death by drowning, she's struck by a lightning underwater in the cold night. The lightning stops her aging process entirely, rendering her immortal and forever young.

As she outlives everyone around her, every decade or so she moves and changes her identity and appearances to avoid suspicions. It also means she can't have a long-term relationship and is forced to leave her loved ones repeatedly.

Although her "origin story", narrated by an off-screen voice, is probably what entices us more, I have to say that the "romance" part of the plot is very enjoyable. It starts rather weak and plain but the tide turns once William, a (literally) old fiancé played by Harrison Ford, comes into play and rocks young Adaline's world and outlook on life.

You might also like to know that Adaline has also a more subtle superpower: she's almost super intelligent and extremely knowledgeable. Her immortality allows her to read extensively and her young synapses allow her to remember it all. More than once in the movie she's shown to know everything, including many different linguages.

Blake plays the character perfectly. She's beautiful but restrained. She's confident, aware of her beauty and intelligence, and her gaze betrays her wisdom forged over more than one hundred years on Earth. I also loved her voice, calm and soothing, low pitched and sultry.

It's worth watching. It got under my skin much more than I anticipated.

Doctor Who had a similar theme just recently.
An immortal girl lived so long and amassed so much knowlege she had to write everything down as her brain could only hold so much.
Her earliest thoughts and memories were literally pushed out to make room for new ones.
She was frozen as a older teen but she did have children who grew old and died while she remained the same age.
She gave up with love or any kind of long lasting relationships.
It really seemed like a curse.

m.imdb.com/title/tt0756683/

The Man From Earth

Sarge395 wrote: m.imdb.com/title/tt0756683/

The Man From Earth

TMFE seems much more intellectual where TAOA is a romantic drama with a science-fiction element.

I understand the premise is similar, but I have to say that the sexy factor should be much higher in The Age Of Adaline