Age of Adaline, The MPAA Rating: PG-13 Entertainment: +2 Content: +2

Blake Lively, Michiel Huisman, Harrison Ford. Drama/romance. Directed by Lee Toland Krieger.

FILM SYNOPSIS: A young woman, born at the turn of 20th century, is rendered ageless after a car accident. While those around her age and die, she remains young. After years of a solitary life, she meets a man who might be worth losing her immortality for.

PREVIEW REVIEW: If we can suspend our sense of reality for two hours, the premise here, much like one of those Disney films where a parent is suddenly in the child’s body and vice versa, may not get in the way of an important parable – life is fleeting.

I remember when Diane Lane was on the cover of Time at the age of thirteen. She was being hailed for her performance, and her face, in A Little Romance, where she appeared as wrinkleless teenager. Well, years have passed and I know I’ve grown old because I can see that Ms. Lane, while still a lovely woman, is no longer line-less. Time flits by as if pulling us to our real destination.

This Somewhere in Time wannabe stumbles a bit due to the clunky narration that attempts a feasible explanation for this phenomenon, and returns every so often to explain the various story elements though they are as plain as, well, crinkles on Harrison Ford’s face. Throughout I kept wondering why she left her child in order to hide the fact that she didn’t age. In the story the FBI attempts to catch her, presumably to do tests on her. She doesn’t want to be a curiosity or specimen. Okay, I get that. But to leave her child at seventeen? Not cool.

The ending is rather silly and just as predictable as the car crash she gets into to set the story. But it is somewhat helped along by Harrison Ford and Blake Lively, who both do their best to make you believe in all this.

I was so pleased that through the first two acts, the dialogue went obscenity free. Then suddenly, there it was, a GD. Only swear word in the movie and it had to be one that profane God’s name.

DVD Alternative: The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. A gothic romance without promiscuity, starring Rex Harrison, Gene Tierney and George Sanders. The serene love affair is difficult to resist. It contains, you should excuse the expression, a “haunting” score by Bernard Herrmann. The DVD contains two insightful and interesting commentary tracks, and other bonuses.

The Picture of Dorian Gray. This haunting gothic tale from a story by Oscar Wilde concerns a callow fellow (Hurd Hatfield) who’s portrait in the attic ages while he remains young. Great cast includes George Sanders, Donna Reed, Angela Lansbury and narration by Sir Cedric Harwicke. Filmed in B&W, with some color inserts. Several versions have been made, but none better than this classic from 1945.

Preview Reviewer: Phil Boatwright
Distributor: Lionsgate