The Age of Adaline

A young widow in 1937 (Blake Lively), through a freakish accident, ceases to age at the age of 29. After 75 years of changing identities, she falls in love, which threatens to unravel her solitary life. This might have been—and may yet prove to be—a signature role for Lively, a born star if there ever was one. But she needs a co-star who will strike romantic sparks on screen, and instead she gets Michiel Huisman—a decent enough actor, but rather scruffy and nondescript, with little screen charisma and even less chemistry with Lively. She has much better rapport with Ellen Burstyn as her elderly daughter and Harrison Ford as a former lover (and Huisman's father). Without that made-for-each-other spark, the movie dissolves into a flaccid shaggy-dog tale shambling toward its foregone conclusion. J.L.