《时光尽头的恋人》

    Blake Lively’s new film is about a woman whose appearance stops changing just before she turns 30.

    At the beginning of the film, we learn that Adaline (Lively) stopped aging the moment she was in a car accident that nearly killed her some 80 years ago. In other words, she’s a 107-year-old with a 29-year-old’s face and body.

    That may sound like a dream for many in the movie business, but Adaline, tired of being treated like a freak*, keeps her condition a secret. Changing her name and living place every 10 years, she avoids intimacy* — and leaves each time someone gets too close, not wanting to commit* and then watch her lover grow old and die.

    When we meet her, she’s working as a librarian*, keeping regular contact only with a blind pianist friend (Lynda Boyd) and the now-elderly daughter she left many years ago (Ellen Burstyn).

    All things considered, life appears to be calm for Adaline until she meets Ellis (Michiel Huisman), a charming hunk* with lots of money and a hobby for all things old. Ellis falls hard for Adaline, who, in turn, gradually gives in to his courtship*, and just when the film starts slipping into a corny* romantic story, the plot twists* in a welcome way: Ellis takes Adaline to meet his parents (Kathy Baker and Harrison Ford), and — without giving too much away — let’s just say it’s not the first time Ellis’ dad has laid eyes on Adaline.

    Lively gives a convincing* performance, and the film itself is nearly as graceful as its leading lady.

    The filmmakers don’t pull us inside Adaline’s head space or play meaningfully with their premise — never, for example, hinting at the character’s response, as a woman at once old and young, to the changing social, political and cultural landscapes of the country she lives in. Instead, they stick to the romantic storyline, with Adaline making a predictable* choice between following her head or her heart.

    (SD-Agencies)