The Curse of Eternal Youth: The Age Of Adaline

"On December 31, 2014, a taxicab travels through San Francisco, from Chinatown to San Marin. The car carries a single passenger: a woman, her birth name Adaline Bowman, current alias Jennifer Larson. This is the first and last chapter of her life."

I love the way the movie starts with a narration and introduces Adaline Bowman in the first scenes. 

Narration doesn't always fit into every movie genre, but without it, The Age of Adaline would lose its period-drama charm.

Adaline Bowman was born on 1st January, 1908. At the age of 29, while driving at night on a lonely road in California, snow fell. California is a state that never sees snow. As she struggles to see her way, Adaline, a widow with a young daughter, drove her car off the road and into the water. For several minutes, she floats unconscious in the water. Suddenly, lightning strikes her and she floats up to take a breath. 

She then lives on in a life of "eternal youth" that most of us would die for. But for Adaline, it becomes a curse. She runs from identity to identity, never staying long enough in one place to establish relationships. 

Why does she run? Is it because of the FBI that wants to investigate why this woman doesn't look her age?

One of the most poignant scenes is when her dog dies, and she tearfully flips through a photo album of her dogs throughout the years, all of the same breed, from black and white photos to  orangey tints to the photos of current times. 

Adaline is tired of living life without aging. Yes, she does have her youth and energy even though she is now 107. She is tired. She is tired of running to hide her identity. And when she meets tall, dark, handsome, wealthy, philantropic, historical-buff, love-at-first-sight, oh-so-into-her Ellis (is this the perfect description of the perfect guy or what), she realizes more so that she is tired of running from love. 

The story, the acting and the direction has kept her character in tact as a woman born from the elegant era of the 1900's. We find Adaline cool and charming, but behind that facade, is a heartbroken woman.

What this movie does is address our society's general judgement on the factor of age between two people who love each other. 

What's age got to do with it? Only because we let it.