By Natasha Puron

Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to never age, living for decades, experiencing new technology, watching the changes in how people talk, act, and dress differently?
In the movie The Age of Adaline, 29 year old woman Adaline Bowman (Blake Lively), who was born December 31, 1908, becomes a widow when her husband has an accident while working on the Golden Gate Bridge.
Early in the movie, there is a flashback to the 1930’s, when Adaline is in a fatal car accident throwing her and her car into a lake, where she drowns and stops breathing. Adaline’s body begins to shut down and her heart stops, until lightning strikes that night and the electric charges start her heart back and she is revived.
After the flashback, the movie fast forwards to modern times when Adaline realizes something different about herself. As everyone around her begins to age, she does not. Adaline’s daughter (Ellen Burstyn), begins to look old while Adaline looks young as always. This is not easy for Adaline every time she has to introduce her daughter as her grandmother.
One day Adaline is pulled over by a cop, and when she shows her ID, the cop asks why she looks so young if she was born in 1908. This is when Adeline realizes she has to change her name, stop speaking to people, and move to a different place to prevent people from knowing who she was and getting suspicious about her. Adaline tells her daughter what happened with her car accident and the lightning strike; then they say their final goodbyes.
On New Year’s Eve while attending a party at a hotel, Adaline sees a picture on the wall of her with friends from decades ago. She stares for a while, and then moves on to join her blind friend that is unaware of how young Adaline looks.
Minutes later, a young man walks in and there is an instant connection between him and Adaline. Later that night, as Adaline is leaving the party, the elevator begins to close, but the young man, Ellis Jones, joins her, greets her and tries to get her to notice him, but she rejects him all the way to her taxi.
The next day at work, Adaline’s co-worker mentions to her how a generous man is going to donate books to the library they work at, the man being Ellis. He brings books to the library and brings flowers to Adaline. He admits to seeing her before at board meetings and that’s how he knows she works at the library.
Ellis then asks if he can photograph her for publicity, but she declines quickly to keep her identity confidential. He then suggests going on a date, but she declines. Ellis continues by saying he will take his donation back if she keeps declining him, so they go on a date. After the date they go to Ellis’s house where she spends the night.
Later that day, Adaline’s daughter comes to visit, and they talk about her daughter’s retirement plans and how she wants Adaline to come back home to Oregon and stop hiding. She says that the people that used to look for her have passed long ago.
While in a taxi, Adaline has a flashback of a nervous man on a park bench with an engagement ring in his hand. She begins to shed some tears while ignoring Ellis’s phone calls.
While at home, Adaline looks through old photos reminiscing about her past and thinking about how lonely she is. Then she goes to Ellis’s job to apologize, and they go on a date to an old drive-in movie theater. He then asks Adaline if she can join him at his parents’ 40 year anniversary party, and she accepts.
They walk into his home and are greeted by Ellis’s father, William Jones. He instantly recognizes her and calls her Adaline, but she quickly reacts and says that was her mother who had passed away, and she explains how close they were.
The next day, William has flashbacks on how he met Adaline and doesn’t stop talking about her, which becomes very annoying to his wife. William was the one holding the engagement ring in Adaline’s flashback. He also describes things about Adaline, which makes Ellis suspicious.
The next day, Adaline is talking to William, and he notices a scar she has which was from a day they went hiking. He looks back at old pictures to make sure he is right and, of course, he is. Ellis’s father comes to her asking her if that was the same reason she had left him, and she admits to it, but he begs her anyway to not run away from his son like she did to him, but she can’t. She has to go.
Adaline leaves a note for Ellis saying she had to go, packs her things, gets the keys, and runs off. When Ellis returns, he is confused as to why Adaline has left, so he goes out looking for her.
Adaline calls her daughter to let her know she is ready to stop hiding and return to Oregon with her. As she is turning around, a tow truck crashes into her and drives off. Out of nowhere, snow begins to fall. Ellis pulls up and sees what is going on as the ambulance takes off to the hospital with Adaline.
Waking up in a hospital bed, Adaline decides to tell Ellis the truth. Minutes later, Adaline’s daughter walks in the room and introduces herself as Adaline’s grandmother. Adaline says, “He knows,” and they cry tears of joy.
One year later, on New Year’s Eve, Adaline and Ellis go to a party, but before leaving, Adaline looks in the mirror and does a double-take while seeing something very odd—a gray hair.
Movie Statistics
The Age of Adaline, rated PG-13, was released on April 24, 2015, to theaters and was released on DVD, September 8, 2015.
According to information posted on the movie website known as The-Numbers < http://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Age-of-Adaline-The#tab=summary>, The Age of Adaline was a big hit making a profit of $60,333,540 in theaters between April 29 and July 8. On the movie website Rotten Tomatoes, The Age of Adaline was liked by 67% of the audience.
Never Getting Old!
I believe this movie was worth watching. The mystery of not knowing what will happen next to Adaline gives you butterflies in your stomach. While watching her run away from the truth, it also makes you think and appreciate a lot about life.
I believe never getting old would be very depressing, and I would most probably get tired of running away from everyone all the time, like how Adaline did.
On the other hand, never aging has many positive side effects like watching technology advance over time, seeing how music changes, viewing how everyone’s interests change.
Eventually seeing everyone I love leave me behind would be very depressing. I also think that I would feel like my life is always on repeat because every time I would start to feel just a bit comfortable, I would have to leave town and change my identity.
Being lonely all the time and not being able to trust anyone would drive me crazy. I believe this is why Adaline finally decided to open up to Ellis and tell him everything that had happened to her.
Although there are many cons to Adaline’s life, I’m sure at the end, she felt extremely relieved with coming clean to Ellis about her life, and she actually was able to grow old with someone and be happy without running away.