IF you have a willing suspension of disbelief then The Age of Adaline is a surprisingly good romantic flick that raises some thought-provoking ideas.
After a near-fatal car accident, 29-year-old Adaline Bowman (Gossip Girl's Blake Lively) stops ageing and when the audience is introduced to her at the start of the film she has lived for almost eight decades without a single grey hair or wrinkle.
While the beauty industry is founded on trying to stop/reverse the ageing process, Bowman finds her eternal youth a curse, forced to live a solitary life for fear of her extraordinary secret getting out.
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READ NOWThe only person who knows the truth is her daughter Flemming who, as she aged naturally, goes from looking like Bowman's daughter to friend, mother and finally grandmother (oldest version brilliantly played by Ellen Burstyn).
After living from the turn of the 20th century into the 21st mainly on her own, Adaline begins to let her guard down following a chance encounter with handsome philanthropist Ellis Jones (Games of Thrones' Michiel Huisman).
A weekend away to celebrate Ellis's parents' 40th anniversary is more than Adaline plans after she is introduced to his father, William (Harrison Ford).
Lively plays the title role with grace and a great deal of heart, while her leading man in Huisman is a believable choice in someone who might make her stray from a self-imposed social exile.
Ford is a welcome addition to the film that is not only visually beautiful, from its fashion to cinematography, but tells an enduring love story with intelligence.
The Age of Adaline (M) Directed by: Lee Toland Krieger Starring: Blake Lively, Michiel Huisman, Harrison Ford Three stars Review by Tanya MacNaughton In cinemas now