Age of Adaline puts brake on Furious 7 at box-office
The Age of Adaline made history on April 24. Lionsgate’s romantic fantasy pulled in $4.9M on its opening day to take the No. 1 slot at the box-office. That means Furious 7’s three-week reign of ruling the US theaters has come to an end.
With the positive reviews from the critics and the good word of mouth from audiences, the magical romance film has retained its high rank in the box-office — it ranked first again on April 30; ranked second on April 27 and 29 and May 1, 4,5, 6 and 7; and ranked third on April 25 to 26, and May 2, 8, 10, 11 and 12.
As of May 10, Adaline has reached a $31,750,987 box-office solely in the US and earned an A-Cinemascore from moviegoers.
Blake Lively’s subtle, expressive performance sets the tone for this thoroughly ludicrous and enjoyable romantic drama. She is perfectly cast as Adaline, a 29-year-old woman born at the beginning of the 20th century whose life takes a turn when her car lands in a watery ditch, where she seems to have drowned.
But she is miraculously brought back to life and has stopped in time. That’s right, Adaline is never going to age.
Given her situation, Adaline can’t stay in the same place more than a decade. She must keep changing her identity and look, all while living a life like no one has ever lived.
But complications arise when Adaline encounters charismatic philanthropist Ellis Jones — played by Michiell Huisman, who has Game
of Thrones and Orphan Black under his belt. Adaline eventually falls for Ellis, finally letting her guard down for the first time.
When a weekend with his parents (Harrison Ford and Kathy Baker) threatens to uncover the truth, Adaline makes a decision that will change her life forever.
The Age of Adaline is a smart and heartfelt drama that enlightens us about love and life. Tears will definitely fall and you won’t even realize you were so emotionally invested in the movie. It triggers a flood of big emotions and waves into it with confidence, laying out all four major characters’ predicaments with sympathy and intelligence, and never shying away from the sentimentality at the heart of every scene and line.
Huisman said what he loved about the script was “telling the story of a woman who found the fountain of youth, something people have eternally been looking for, and then it turns out to be a burden. The message was really nice, actually. One of the things I hope people will do, aside from enjoying themselves for an hour and a half, is embrace the cycle of life, or whatever you call it. Don’t complain that you’re getting older; it’s good.”
Of course, not everyone who gets to stay 29 forever looks like Lively. “But here’s what I would say to that,” said director Lee Toland Krieger. “I like the idea that she’s a woman. The pressure on women to remain young and look beautiful is more severe than ever, and much more than for men. But to put a finer point on it the notion, you have a protagonist who’s Blake Lively, a statuesque, ideal-looking woman who’s remained so for eight decades — and then you get the rug pulled out from under you and learn it’s been a curse.”
The Age of Adaline offers a soothing reminder that one of life’s chief frustrations — we never have as much time as we would like — might in fact be one of its truest mercies. The film also serves as a corrective to prevailing standards of beauty, particularly in an industry where actresses are encouraged to smooth away every line and wrinkle. Most of all though is, it’s a vehicle for Lively’s expressive performance. At her subtlest, Lively sensitizes us to her character’s thoughts as she processes the incomprehension of those around her, nimbly working out the best way to answer everyone’s questions without revealing what’s really going on. For all the deception, however, the truth of Adaline’s feelings is never hidden from the viewer, least of all in once crucial scene where she gazes into a mirror and responds to what she sees with both sorrow and elation. Creating a magical tale like The
Age of Adaline — in which actress Adaline remains 29 years old for eight decades — requires something timeless: Attention to detail.
“One of things that intrigued me about making the film was the opportunity to re-create different decades,” said Krieger ( Celeste and Jesse
Forever). To that end, he said, various eras were re-imagined via the technology available to them: For instance, 1908 — when our heroine, Adaline Bowman, is born — was filmed by cinematographer David Lanzenberg using hand-cranked cameras. The ’20s, during which time Adaline experiences the fluky confluence of nature that froze her in her 29th year, were captured through period lenses. For more contemporary times, the lighting was sharper. Likewise the images. The costumes, of course, were also meticulously designed or chosen.
See a magical love story in theaters on May 20.