What happens when a woman stops aging for eight decades after a lightning strike?
In short: In the 2015 romantic fantasy The Age of Adaline, a woman survives a near-fatal accident in 1937 that leaves her biologically frozen at age twenty-nine. For sixty years, she lives in hiding, constantly changing her identity to escape government scrutiny, until a chance encounter forces her to confront her past.
Adaline Bowman was born in 1908 and lived a conventional life until a 1937 car accident in Sonoma County. After plunging into a freezing lake, a lightning strike miraculously revived her, triggering a permanent biological stasis. While the world around her continued to age, Adaline remained twenty-nine, eventually forcing her to abandon her daughter, Flemming, and live as a fugitive to avoid being studied by the FBI.
The narrative shifts to 2015, where Adaline, living under the alias Jennifer Larson, meets Ellis Jones. The complication arises when she attends a celebration with Ellis’s parents and discovers his father, William, is a man she had fallen in love with decades earlier. William recognizes her, leading to an emotional confrontation that forces Adaline to choose between her isolated safety and the possibility of a future. A subsequent accident involving a defibrillator provides a scientific—if fantastical—explanation for the reversal of her condition, finally allowing her to age.
The production of the film was a long, complex process involving multiple directors and casting changes before Lee Toland Krieger ultimately took the helm. Critics offered mixed reviews, though the performances of Blake Lively and Harrison Ford were widely acclaimed. Matt Zoller Seitz, writing for RogerEbert.com, noted that Ford’s portrayal of William was his most powerful work in years, comparing it favorably to his roles in The Fugitive and Witness. Despite its modest $25 million budget, the film achieved a worldwide box-office gross of $65.7 million.
Beyond the plot, the film’s aesthetic was carefully crafted to reflect the different eras Adaline lived through. Costume designer Angus Strathie used fashion as a storytelling device, while the cinematography utilized anamorphic lenses to evoke the visual tone of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. The film serves as a meditation on mortality, contrasting the permanence of Adaline’s youth with the inevitable passage of time experienced by everyone else.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: The Age of Adaline
- Also: The Age of Adaline
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