“THE AGE OF ADALINE”: A SWEET SURPRISE

I'M BACK ON TRACK! - AHHHH! HOW I MISSED WRITING. I'VE BEEN REALLY, BELIEVE ME, REALLY BUSY STUDYING AND TRANSLATING AND TEACHING AND, YOU KNOW, COPING...

YET, HERE WE ARE! I FELL IN LOVE WITH THIS PINK FILM AND I JUST WANTED TO SHARE.

THERE YOU GO...

---------------------------------------------


It was quite long ago since I had last indulged in the pleasure of a Sunday-night film. Well... Three months can be an eternity for cinemaholics, right?

Yeah, right...

So... Last night I went on Netflix with the intention of looking up something to watch. (Oh, yes! I have Netflix now! :D)

Needless to say, I had nothing in mind (as I usually do), so I decided to scroll through Netflix's popular films. There was “The age of Adaline”, localised in Spanish as “El secreto de Adaline” (literally, “Adaline's secret”).

I had heard its name quite a few times and I recalled having wanted to see it. I also liked the character's name[i], which is quite a stupid reason to choose a film, actually. But well... It was Sunday night, after all.

I was in the silly mood with which I've begun this article and I wanted to see something relaxing, not too deep.

I was surprised.

Of course, this film is no Black Swan or Inception or any other mind-twister of that sort. But beneath its somewhat corny love story, it has some questions which left me thinking.

Let me set the scenario for you: the movie is about a young woman, born at the turn of the 20th century, who is rendered ageless after an accident. After many solitary years, she meets a man who complicates the eternal life she has settled into.[ii] In fact it does have some shades of existentialism: Adaline, an outcast in her own lady-like way, has fled from place to place during eighty years, changing her identity so that no one would know her secret. She lived during the Cold War, too. No, seriously, it's relevant.

During her eighty years of existence, she has lived many adventures and left some broken hearts, only genuinely bonding with her pets (no, there's no animal sex, it's a prim-and-proper film). When she meets handsome and extravagant Ellis, a philanthropist gentleman, she'll realise how tired she is of running from everyone, neglecting herself in the way.

Here's what I liked about the motion picture:

·      Blake Lively's performance;

·      The genre;

·      The dogs;

·      The moral behind it (cheesy and all);

·      The originality.

Let me expand.

Blake Lively is an actress I only knew for her face. The kind of people you mostly see in magazines and interviews with Jimmy Fallon and the like. I did NOT, mind you DID NOT AT ALL expect much of her. Poor thing, I underestimated her due to her beauty. In fact, once the film had finished I thought I had correctly underestimated her. But this morning, I kept thinking about it. The acting looked a little insipid at first, but then I thought that maybe that is what the actress wanted us to see. The character is truly complex and I believe that Lively's portrayal conveys an air of restraint, which arises from both the character's delicate education (she grew up in the early 20th century) and her naturally concealing personality. All of this I thought this morning, after a night's rest. Moral: never write a review immediately after watching a film.

As for the genre, I think it's quite hard to set cinema (or books, or art in general) in ONE genre box these days, and this film is not an exception. In fact you have to go for a combination. In this case, I'd say it's equally divided into fantasy, romance and drama. And those are some of the things I like most! Believable fantasy is usually hard to achieve, and if you add love to that combo... Well, results can be catas-freaking-trophic. Add drama, and well... You know what I mean. Truth is, the flick gathering us here walks that risky line and, in my view, the outcome is triumphant. It's not pure bullcrap (to a certain degree, it's even believable) and absolutely heart-warming. The deeds and musings of this timeless woman, her loneliness and, yes, her selfishness are absolutely relatable.

The dogs, yeah... They speak for themselves, actually. Who wouldn't love a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel? Yeah, I knew the breed before googling it. The movie is FULL of them as the character seems to be Cavalier-King-etc-lover. Adaline's cute furry flatmate, her only true friend apart from her daughter (the scene where they chat in a bar is great), is the great-great-great-(...)-grandson of the first one she owned. Honestly, her relationship with her pet is positively one of the most beautiful things in the film and I can't say more.

Then, the moral... It's kind of silly actually, but I liked it. I think that it goes for that (literary) romantic concept that revolves around the true (and beautiful) power of nature, which is parallel to that of human feelings. There are two defining moments for Adaline, but I would spoil if I told you which. Nuh-uh, I won't. Stop.

This last aspect I believe is what made me value the film more than anything else. The one's before are completely subjective and you might agree or not. By originality I mean that this film is, yeah, you guessed... Original. The screenplay was written from scrap, it's not an adaptation from a book. In an era dominated by adaptations from sagas like Harry Potter and The Hunger Games, or pinkish novels like The Notebook (respectable though they may be), finding one that is none of those things was a great surprise. Again: it's not that adaptations have less merit, what I mean is that original screenplays are a needle in a haystack nowadays. Indeed after finishing I looked up if there was a book to accompany it, and was marvelled to find out that I wouldn't be able to spend a few weeks reading it.

Sooo... To conclude. I truly advise giving this (chick) flick a go. As one IMDb commenter put it, I'd rather hand my man-card in, because I totally fell for it. I like love stories and fantasy, and I have neither the time nor the willpower to worry about being a macho-man.

There you go, the I-don't-know-what-to-watch excuse is not valid. For once, at least. Enjoy your next weekend with this, trust me.



None of the images belong to me and were not included for commercial or financial purposes.
[i] Pronounced /ædəlaɪn/, btw...
[ii] Thank you, IMDb

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