Checked out the new romance / magical realism flick The Age of Adeline (which released one week before it’s sequel Age of Ultron!) Adeline is about a young lady (played by the lovely Blake Lively) who, in the 1920s, gets into an accident that stops her aging. There’s a weird and random omniscient narrator who informs us her condition is caused by a weird condition that will be understood in the year 2040 (so, you know, go with it, people!). The narrator also informs us of asteroid impacts on the moon, weather conditions in S. America, and a bunch of other “if you say so, pal” moments. It’s weird and out of place and feels like this movie was based on a book that covered all of this material a lot better.

Age of Adeline is about a woman born in 1908 who is still young in 2014 and that’s an interesting idea. Approaching the idea of immortality or (time travel) from a female POV is a little unusual for a mainstream movie (usually we get Highlander, Wolverine, etc.). But the movie never follows through on its ideas. There are only a handful of scenes showing her life down through the decades… she tosses around a name or a bit of history, but we never really get an idea of how her life was like throughout the 20th century. And, hell, isn’t that the point of this movie?

Well, maybe not… the movie is really a romance between her – and she’s interesting and lively (so to speak) – and some blando nobody of a handsome guy who finally gets her to go out on a date with her after creeping on her in what, to me, seemed like really pushy and unsettling ways. Because, gals, no really means yes, amiright?

The guy is played by the second actor to portrays Daario Neharis on Game of Thrones – Danaerys Targaryen’s mercenary boytoy who (as played by this guy) is mainly known for being another guy with a beard. I dunno – the actor does very little for me so I was more than happy to let Adeline just keep brushing him off. He’s creepy, he doesn’t seem to have discernible interesting traits… so what are we doing here? Kind of a problem for a romance when you can’t see the connection between the characters. And since the movie is only vaguely interested in its sci-fi theme, you don’t even have explorations of her past to fall back on.

But, half-way into the movie, Harrison Ford suddenly shows up. He’s one of Adeline’s former boyfriends from the 1960s and that adds a little something to the movie… but partly because the few flashbacks the movie gives us involves a young actor name Anthony Ingruber who looks convincingly enough like a 25 year old Harrison Ford.

This isn’t a terrible movie – it’s well-acted and it looks pretty good. It just kind of fails to be either a convincing romance or a tale of magical realism. It kind of reminded me of A Winter’s Tale from a year or two ago – a movie that had the courage of its fantastical early 20th century convictions. It wasn’t a successful movie, but at least it was what it was… Age of Adeline isn’t what it thinks it is.

Score: 72