''The Age of Adaline'' is a 2015 American
romantic fantasy film
Fantasy films are films that belong to the fantasy genre with fantastic themes, usually magic, supernatural events, mythology, folklore, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered a form of speculative fiction alongside science fiction f ...
directed by
Lee Toland Krieger
Lee Toland Krieger (born January 24, 1983) is an American film director and screenwriter best known for the films ''The Vicious Kind'' (2009), ''Celeste and Jesse Forever'' (2012) and ''The Age of Adaline'' (2015).
Early life
Krieger was born an ...
and written by
J. Mills Goodloe and
Salvador Paskowitz. The film stars
Blake Lively
Blake Ellender Lively ( Brown; born August 25, 1987) is an American actress. Born in Los Angeles, Lively is the daughter of actor Ernie Lively, and made her professional debut in his directorial project ''Sandman'' (1998). She starred as Brid ...
in the title role, with
Michiel Huisman
Michiel Huisman (; born 18 July 1981) is a Dutch actor who has acted in both Dutch and English-language TV series and films.
Huisman began his career in the Dutch soap opera ''Goede tijden, slechte tijden'' (1998). He later played in the Dutc ...
,
Kathy Baker
}
Katherine Whitton Baker (born June 8, 1950) is an American actress. Baker began her career in theater and made her screen debut in the 1983 drama film '' The Right Stuff''. She received the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Suppor ...
,
Amanda Crew
Amanda Catherine Crew (born June 5, 1986) is a Canadian actress. Following her film debut in ''Final Destination 3'' (2006), she had lead roles as Felicia Alpine in ''Sex Drive (film), Sex Drive'' (2008) and Tess Carroll in ''Charlie St. Cloud (f ...
,
Harrison Ford
Harrison Ford (born July 13, 1942) is an American actor. His films have grossed more than $5.4billion in North America and more than $9.3billion worldwide, making him the seventh-highest-grossing actor in North America. He is the recipient o ...
, and
Ellen Burstyn
Ellen Burstyn (born Edna Rae Gillooly; December 7, 1932) is an American actress. Known for her portrayals of complicated women in dramas, she is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a Tony Award, and two Primetime Em ...
in supporting roles. Narrated by Hugh Ross, the story follows Adaline Bowman, a young woman who stops aging after being brought back to life from death following an accident at the age of 29.
The film was co-produced by
Sidney Kimmel Entertainment
Sidney Kimmel Entertainment is an American financer, film and television production company founded in 2004 by philanthropist and film producer Sidney Kimmel. Sidney Kimmel Entertainment focuses on bringing entertainment projects to audiences in ...
and
Lakeshore Entertainment
Lakeshore Entertainment Group, LLC is an American independent film production, finance, and former international sales and distribution company founded in 1994 by Tom Rosenberg and Ted Tannebaum (1933–2002). Lakeshore Entertainment is headquart ...
. In October 2013, Lively was cast as the title character, with Krieger attached to direct.
Principal photography
Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production.
Personnel
Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...
took place in
Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
from March 5 to May 5, 2014.
''The Age of Adaline'' premiered in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
on April 19, 2015, was cinematically released on April 24 in the United States by
Lionsgate
Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquartered ...
. The film received mixed reviews from critics, with many praising the performances of Lively and Ford, and was frequently cited as some of their best work in recent years. It was a modest box-office success, grossing $65.7 million worldwide on a $25 million budget. The film received two nominations at the
42nd Saturn Awards, one for
Best Fantasy Film and one for Lively for
Best Actress
Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress awar ...
.
Plot
Adaline Bowman purchases fake IDs then opens a box of film reels which highlight historical events. A voiceover tells the story of Adaline's life. She was the first baby born in San Francisco on New Year's Day of 1908. She married and gave birth to a daughter, only to become a widow when her husband died in an accident during construction of the Golden Gate Bridge in 1937. Ten months later, Adaline crashed her car into a ravine and died in the freezing lake, but a lightning strike revived her. From that moment, Adaline stayed physically 29 years old.
Two suspicious FBI agents attempt to abduct her for study, but she escapes and realizes she will have to spend the rest of her life on the run. Ever since, she has periodically changed her identification while her daughter Flemming ages normally.
On
New Year's Eve
In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve, also known as Old Year's Day or Saint Sylvester's Day in many countries, is the evening or the entire day of the last day of the year, on 31 December. The last day of the year is commonly referred to ...
2014, as "Jennifer", she meets Ellis Jones at a party. Knowing she can never fall in love, she initially refuses his request to see her again but accepts the next day when he shows up at her work.
In a flashback, Adaline pulls up in a cab to where a man is waiting, holding an engagement ring. She tells the cab driver to keep going.
Ellis asks Adaline to his parents' fortieth anniversary party. His father, William, recognizes her instantly and calls her Adaline. She tells him Adaline was her deceased mother. A flashback reveals William was the man with the engagement ring.
William is shaken when he notices a scar on Adaline's hand, revealed in flashback to be a cut Adaline sustained while she and William were hiking together decades ago and which he had stitched himself. He confronts her. She, upset, says she used to be "normal" and doesn't know what changed her. He, for Ellis's sake, begs her not to run but she says she doesn't know how to stay. She writes Ellis a note and leaves. Finding the letter, Ellis confronts his father who refuses to explain.
Driving home, Adaline recalls all the times she has run. She stops the car and calls her daughter to tell her she is going to stop running. A tow truck plows into her car, pushing it into a ravine. Adaline is ejected from the car and dies from
hypothermia
Hypothermia is defined as a body core temperature below in humans. Symptoms depend on the temperature. In mild hypothermia, there is shivering and mental confusion. In moderate hypothermia, shivering stops and confusion increases. In severe h ...
. An ambulance crew revives her with a
defibrillator
Defibrillation is a treatment for life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias, specifically ventricular fibrillation (V-Fib) and non-perfusing ventricular tachycardia (V-Tach). A defibrillator delivers a dose of electric current (often called a ''coun ...
and she wakes up in the hospital with Ellis at her bedside. They profess their love for one another, and Adaline tells him of her 107 years of life, always running and afraid of being discovered.
A year later, Ellis and Adaline are leaving for a New Year's Eve party when, in the hallway mirror: she notices her first grey hair. When Ellis asks if she is okay, she responds: "Yes, perfect."
Cast
Production
On May 12, 2010, it was announced that ''The Age of Adaline'' would be co-financed and co-produced by
Lakeshore Entertainment
Lakeshore Entertainment Group, LLC is an American independent film production, finance, and former international sales and distribution company founded in 1994 by Tom Rosenberg and Ted Tannebaum (1933–2002). Lakeshore Entertainment is headquart ...
and
Sidney Kimmel Entertainment
Sidney Kimmel Entertainment is an American financer, film and television production company founded in 2004 by philanthropist and film producer Sidney Kimmel. Sidney Kimmel Entertainment focuses on bringing entertainment projects to audiences in ...
.
Salvador Paskowitz and
J. Mills Goodloe wrote the script.
Sierra / Affinity has the international rights, while producers were
Steve Golin
Steven Aaron Golin (March 6, 1955 – April 21, 2019) was an American film and television producer and the founder and CEO of Anonymous Content LLP, a multimedia development, production and talent management company and co-founder and CEO of Pr ...
, Alix Madigan,
Tom Rosenberg
Tom B. Rosenberg (1947/1948) is an American film producer, co-founder of Beacon Pictures; and founder and chairman of Lakeshore Entertainment. He is a recipient of the 2004 Academy Award for Best Picture for the film ''Million Dollar Baby''.
B ...
and
Gary Lucchesi
Gary Lucchesi (born January 4, 1955 in San Francisco, California) is an American film producer who is President of Lakeshore Entertainment and past President of The Producers Guild of America.
Career
Lucchesi began his career at The William M ...
.
On July 20, 2010, it was reported that
Andy Tennant
Andrew Wellman Tennant (born June 15, 1955) is an American screenwriter, film and television director, actor, and dancer.
Early life
Tennant was born June 15, 1955 in Chicago, Illinois and was raised in Flossmoor, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago ...
was set to direct the film. On October 31, 2010,
Summit Entertainment
Summit Entertainment is an American film production and distribution company. It is a label of Lionsgate Films, owned by Lionsgate Entertainment and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California.
History Independent era (1991–2012)
Summit E ...
bought the US distribution rights to the film, which was set to begin shooting in March 2011 for an early 2012 release.
On February 22, 2011, it was reported that
Gabriele Muccino
Gabriele Muccino (; born 20 May 1967) is an Italian film director. He has worked his way from making short films only aired on Italian television to become a well-known and successful American filmmaker. He is the elder brother of actor Silvio Mu ...
was in talks to direct the film, replacing Tennant, with the film re-titled from ''The Age of Adaline'' to simply ''Adaline''. On May 14, 2012, it was announced that Spanish director
Isabel Coixet
Isabel Coixet Castillo (; born 9 April 1960 ) is a Spanish film director. She is one of the most prolific film directors of contemporary Spain, having directed twelve feature-length films since the beginning of her film career in 1988, in additio ...
would direct the film instead. On October 16, 2013,
Lee Toland Krieger
Lee Toland Krieger (born January 24, 1983) is an American film director and screenwriter best known for the films ''The Vicious Kind'' (2009), ''Celeste and Jesse Forever'' (2012) and ''The Age of Adaline'' (2015).
Early life
Krieger was born an ...
was reported to be the actual director of the film.
Producer Dan Cohen had shown him the script at a general meeting in 2009.
Casting
On May 12, 2010,
Katherine Heigl
Katherine Marie Heigl ( ; born November 24, 1978) is an American actress and former fashion model. She played Dr. Izzie Stevens on the American Broadcasting Company, ABC television medical drama ''Grey's Anatomy'' from 2005 to 2010, a role tha ...
was cast as the title character.
On November 12, 2010,
Angela Lansbury
Dame Angela Brigid Lansbury (October 16, 1925 – October 11, 2022) was an Irish-British and American film, stage, and television actress. Her career spanned eight decades, much of it in the United States, and her work received a great deal ...
was added to the cast of the film, set to play the daughter of the ageless Adaline. On November 15, Heigl withdrew from ''Adalines cast, and there were rumors that she had been fired by Lakeshore, which both Lakeshore and Heigl denied.
She later announced that her withdrawal was a result of her recent adoption of a daughter.
On August 15, 2011,
TheWrap
''TheWrap'' is an American online news website covering the business of entertainment and media via digital, print and live events. It was founded by journalist Sharon Waxman
Sharon I. Waxman (born c.1963) is an American author, journalist, ...
reported that
Natalie Portman
Natalie Portman (born Natalie Hershlag, he, נטע-לי הרשלג, ) is an Israeli-born American actress. She has had a prolific film career since her teenage years and has starred in various blockbusters and independent films, receiving mu ...
had been offered the lead role. On August 25, Portman told ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
'' that she had declined the offer.
On October 16, 2013, Blake Lively and Ellen Burstyn were cast in the film to play the lead roles, with Lively starring as the title character.
On January 15, 2014, Harrison Ford joined the cast, and the film was set to begin shooting in March of that year.
On February 11, 2014,
Michiel Huisman
Michiel Huisman (; born 18 July 1981) is a Dutch actor who has acted in both Dutch and English-language TV series and films.
Huisman began his career in the Dutch soap opera ''Goede tijden, slechte tijden'' (1998). He later played in the Dutc ...
joined the cast to star opposite Lively as Adaline's love interest.
Filming
Filming began on March 10, 2014, in
Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
and continued through May 5.
On March 11, 2014, filming at the
Hotel Vancouver
The Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, formerly and still informally called the Hotel Vancouver, is a historic hotel in Vancouver, British Columbia. Located along West Georgia Street the hotel is situated within the city's Financial District, in Downtown ...
commenced.
Anamorphic
Anamorphic format is the cinematography technique of shooting a widescreen picture on standard 35 mm film or other visual recording media with a non-widescreen native aspect ratio. It also refers to the projection format in which a distorted ...
lenses and minimal use of
steadicam
Steadicam is a brand of camera stabilizer mounts for Movie camera, motion picture cameras invented by Garrett Brown and introduced in 1975 by Cinema Products Corporation. It was designed to isolate the camera from the camera operator's movement ...
s were employed to provide greater authenticity for scenes set in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. The films ''
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes'' and ''
How to Marry a Millionaire
''How to Marry a Millionaire'' is a 1953 American screwball comedy film directed by Jean Negulesco and written and produced by Nunnally Johnson. The screenplay was based on the plays ''The Greeks Had a Word for It'' (1930) by Zoe Akins and ''Loc ...
'' served as inspiration for the period color tone and saturation.
Music
While
Rob Simonsen
Rob Simonsen is an American composer based in Los Angeles.
Early life
Simonsen began playing the piano by ear at an early age. His grandmother was a voice teacher and music was around him in his family home. He later studied music at Southern Or ...
scored the film,
Lana Del Rey
Elizabeth Woolridge Grant (born June 21, 1985), known professionally as Lana Del Rey, is an American singer-songwriter. Her music is noted for its cinematic quality and exploration of tragic romance, glamour, and melancholia, with frequent ...
contributed a song titled "Life Is Beautiful," which is featured in the film's trailer but not included in the soundtrack.
Release
On August 15, 2014, Lionsgate set the film for a January 23, 2015 worldwide release. Later, the date was moved to April 24, 2015. The film was released on DVD on September 8, 2015.
Marketing
The promotional campaign was aimed primarily at fashion-conscious women. Danielle DePalma, executive vice-president of digital marketing at Lionsgate, said, "We were very aware of Blake’s high-fashion profile when we crafted the campaign, and there was so much beautiful imagery from the film." They created vignettes for
MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
and
VH1 and a fashion segment for
E! News
''E! News'', previously known as ''E! News Daily'' and ''E! News Live'', is the entertainment news operation for the cable network E! in the United States. Its former on-air weekday newscast debuted on September 1, 1991, and primarily reports ...
showing viewers how to achieve the same looks as Lively. They created a custom "Fashion Journey Through the Decades" initiative, through which a fashion influencer from
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
or
Maker Studios
Maker(s) or The Maker(s) may refer to:
Film and television
* ''The Maker'' (film), a 1997 American drama film
*'' Makers: Women Who Make America'', a 2013 American TV documentary, a 2014 TV series, and related media
*Maker Studios, now part of D ...
created a unique look inspired by the film. Video ads were also released on
Instagram
Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...
and tutorials on
Pinterest
Pinterest is an American image sharing and social media service designed to enable saving and discovery of information (specifically "ideas") on the internet using images, and on a smaller scale, animated GIFs and videos, in the form of pinboard ...
. Advance screenings for fashion and lifestyle influencers took place in partnership with
Gilt City. The application
Periscope
A periscope is an instrument for observation over, around or through an object, obstacle or condition that prevents direct line-of-sight observation from an observer's current position.
In its simplest form, it consists of an outer case with ...
was used to spread information about the film.
Reception
Box office
''The Age of Adaline'' earned $42,629,776 in North America and $23,033,500 in other countries, for a worldwide box office gross of $65.7 million.
The film opened with $575,000 during Thursday late-night showings at 2,100 U.S. theaters. It finished the weekend at number three behind ''
Furious 7
''Furious 7'' (also known as ''Fast & Furious 7'') is a 2015 American action film directed by James Wan and written by Chris Morgan. It is the sequel to ''Fast & Furious 6'' (2013) and '' The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift'' (2006), and ser ...
'' and ''
Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2'' with $13.4 million from 2,991 locations.
Critical response
''The Age of Adaline'' has received mixed reviews from critics, although the performances of Blake Lively and Harrison Ford received very positive reviews and were cited as some of their best work in recent years.
On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film has a approval rating, based on reviews, with an average rating of . The site's consensus reads: "''The Age of Adaline'' ruminates on mortality less compellingly than similarly themed films, but is set apart by memorable performances from Blake Lively and Harrison Ford." On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, the film has a score of 51 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". In
CinemaScore
CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data.
Background
Ed Mintz founded Ci ...
polls conducted during the opening weekend, cinema audiences gave ''The Age of Adaline'' an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.
Matt Zoller Seitz
Matt Zoller Seitz (born December 26, 1968) is an American film and television critic, author and film-maker.
Career
Matt Zoller Seitz is editor-at-large at RogerEbert.com, and the television critic for '' New York'' magazine and Vulture.com, as ...
of
RogerEbert.com gave the film three out of four stars, expressing surprise at the film's increase in quality midway through: "I've never seen a less involving movie become so compelling at the exact moment when you've resigned to write it off as just okay." He also gave high praise to Harrison Ford's dramatic performance, writing that "Ford's voice—always deep, lowered an octave by age and one more by William's longing—is even more powerful
han the devastating look on his face This is Ford's best performance since ''
The Fugitive'', maybe since ''
Witness
In law, a witness is someone who has knowledge about a matter, whether they have sensed it or are testifying on another witnesses' behalf. In law a witness is someone who, either voluntarily or under compulsion, provides testimonial evidence, e ...
''".
Accolades
References
External links
*
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Age Of Adaline, The
2015 films
2015 fantasy films
2015 romantic drama films
2010s American films
2010s coming-of-age drama films
2010s English-language films
2010s fantasy drama films
2010s romantic fantasy films
American coming-of-age drama films
American fantasy drama films
American romantic drama films
American romantic fantasy films
Films about dysfunctional families
Films about human rights
Films about immortality
Films about old age
Films directed by Lee Toland Krieger
Films produced by Gary Lucchesi
Films produced by Sidney Kimmel
Films produced by Tom Rosenberg
Films scored by Rob Simonsen
Films set in San Francisco
Films shot in Vancouver
Lakeshore Entertainment films
Magic realism films
Sidney Kimmel Entertainment films