The Age Of Adaline, film review: Beautifully shot and absurd romantic fantasy

(12) Lee Toland Krieger, 114 mins. Starring: Blake Lively, Michiel Huisman, Harrison Ford

Michiel Huisman and Blake Lively in ‘The Age of Adaline’

The Age of Adaline is a beautifully shot and absurd romantic fantasy about someone who can never grow old. Adaline (Blake Lively) is a San Francisco librarian who has been alive for 107 years but is condemned to remain a young woman of 29. Her condition is the legacy of a car crash during which she was immersed in freezing water, suffered "anoxic shock", died, but was mysteriously brought back to life. Now, she is "immune to the ravages of time".

In case the concept is too confusing, the film provides a portentous voiceover to explain what is going on. Visually, the film is impressive. It makes clever use of archive footage and recreates different eras in loving detail.

Blake Lively's Adaline is sophisticated but not especially sympathetic – she seems more like a model from a sepia-tinted luxury-goods photo supplement than a character in a drama. Her dress sense seems stuck in the 1940s. It doesn't help that the film-makers tie themselves in knots trying to depict Adaline's complicated love and family life over the decades.

A venerable Harrison Ford, looking more like Grandpa Simpson than Han Solo, plays one of her former sweethearts, while Ellen Burstyn is cast as the daughter who is far older than she is.