The Age of Adaline

Director: Lee Toland Krieger
Year Released: 2015
Rating: 2.0

In the late 1930's, Adaline Bowman (Blake Lively) almost drowns when her car crashes into a body of water (!) but gets struck by lightning (!) and her body stops aging (sweet Oscar Wilde's ghost!) - in the present day, she's working in digital media at a San Francisco library and catches the attention of the wealthy Ellis Jones (Michiel Huisman). If one can make it past the wacky script machinations and achingly terrible first half of the movie (how she eluded the authorities that long is beyond me) and get to the section where Bowman meets Ellis' father (Harrison Ford) - it turns out the two of them have a charming past - the movie becomes surprisingly affecting (it's easily one of the best performances by Ford in a long time, and it gives Lively a character of actual substance to play against) ... although the scenes with daughter Flemming (Ellen Burstyn) are nice as well. The New Age-y approach is really a way to knock Adaline's commitment-o-phobia ... but if commitment means gray hair and (eventual) death, what's so wrong with staying single?