The Age of Adaline (2015)

Movie · 2015 · Romance, Fantasy, Drama · 1h 52m · PG-13 · English

Curator score: 3.0/10 (567.5K ratings)

Love is timeless.

Overview

After 29-year-old Adaline recovers from a nearly lethal accident, she inexplicably stops growing older. As the years stretch on and on, Adaline keeps her secret to herself until she meets a man who changes her life.

Ratings

Director

Lee Toland Krieger

Production

Lakeshore Entertainment, Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, Lionsgate

Cast

Blake Lively, Michiel Huisman, Harrison Ford, Ellen Burstyn, Kathy Baker, Amanda Crew, Lynda Boyd, Hugh Ross, Richard Harmon, Fulvio Cecere, Anjali Jay, Hiro Kanagawa, Peter J. Gray, Izabel Pearce, Cate Richardson, Jane Craven, Noel Johansen, Aaron Craven, Primo Allon, Darren Dolynski

Where to watch

Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads

Curator Review

Verdict

A glossy, high-concept romance with a strong hook and appealing performances, but it leans heavily on melodrama and convenience. The immortal-longevity premise gives it a wistful, fairy-tale quality, though the script sometimes undercuts that with predictable plotting and a few uncomfortable relationship dynamics.

Best for

  • viewers who like romantic fantasy with a bittersweet, old-soul mood
  • fans of elegant, polished melodramas
  • people drawn to stories about memory, time, and identity
  • audiences who enjoy star-driven, emotionally earnest romances

Skip if

  • you want a sharper or more original screenplay
  • you are sensitive to possessive or creepy romantic behavior
  • you prefer grounded relationship drama over fantasy
  • you dislike sentimental, glossy romance

Overview

The Age of Adaline has a lovely central idea: what does it mean to live forever if everyone else keeps moving on? That question gives the film a gentle melancholy, and the production design and costumes do a lot of work in selling Adaline as someone permanently out of step with time. Blake Lively is well cast as a woman who has learned to be careful, self-contained, and a little lonely.

Worth noting

The movie is at its best when it lingers on memory, reinvention, and the ache of outliving your own life. It also has a pleasing old-fashioned romance sheen, with Harrison Ford adding unexpected weight to the emotional backstory. But the script often settles for easy sentiment, and the love story can feel more engineered than earned.

Bottom line

There is also a persistent problem with how the film frames pursuit and consent, which makes some of the romantic beats harder to embrace. If you come for the premise and the mood, there is enough here to enjoy; if you want the fantasy to deepen into something more psychologically convincing, it stays a little too surface-level.

Top Letterboxd reviews

russman (2.5★) · 4551 likes

It's much easier to figure out the age of Adele. She puts it on all of her albums.

Madison Wake · 3047 likes

someone said eternal milf hahaha

eely (3.5★) · 2887 likes

me when ellis told adaline he brought her flowers but they were actually books with the names of flowers in their titles: 💖💗💓💕💘

dani (4★) · 2579 likes

imagine finding out that you fucked your boyfriend’s dad a day after fucking your boyfriend?

sarah (4★) · 2202 likes

no bc this bitch could’ve done so much more to change her appearance

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Topics

romantic fantasy, melodrama, bittersweet, time travel-adjacent, identity crisis, loneliness, glossy production design, sentimental, 20th century spans, adult romance

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