Things that would have made this movie better?

paltrow would have been too old, she is 15 years older than blake...
P.s if you liked blake lively, be sure to watch savages, it is a very good movie in which blake is not only the lead cast but she is also the narrator...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1615065/?ref_=nv_sr_1

you can also try gossip girl but it's girly and i don't think you will like it...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0397442/?ref_=nv_sr_1

The narration was mainly to explain the physiological changes, which the characters had no way of understanding. Avoiding the narration would have been impossible since without it the movie had no way of telling the viewers what was going on.

I'm with you. I really enjoyed watching it all unfold like a fable. I don't need all of that over-exaggerated drama.

Sure it wasn't perfect - the science wasn't believable, but it no less believable than say a fairy godmother turning a pumpkin into a carriage or a boy who gets bitten by a spider and turns into spiderman, or people that jump out of buildings and into cars that are moving at 100 mph. I think all fantasy movies have elements that just need to be accepted to enjoy them.

I liked the performances of the actors, Blake as Adaline seemed suitably troubled, looking for something more in her life but having deep reservations at the same time. Michiel as Ellis was excellent bringing some nervousness that seemed fitting when pursuing someone you really want to meet and humor that enabled Adaline to see how her life could be happier. Ellen as Flemming was wonderful - her scene in the hospital when she found out that Ellis knew was the one that got to me. The twist with Harrison Ford's role of William was actually touching. Once he confirmed what he suspected, all he cared about was his son's happiness. That was a great moment - they didn't get into melodrama territory, which was the right move.

I love the movie the way it is but if I had to change a few things I would lessen the narration (but not take it out completely) as the audience could figure much of it out from the scenes. And I would add an extra scene or two between Adaline and Ellis dating over a longer timespan.

I wouldn't have minded a miniseries or better yet a full-blown series that took 10-20 hours to tell the same story. The ending, though happy, really needed more setup as to how Adaline reached that point emotionally, and more time actually fleshing out the aftermath to be truly satisfying to me.

A better idea of how she lived the past 80 years would've helped me swallow why she made her decision to stop running at that point in time (a few hours into driving away!). And I have this deep craving to see the whole scene where Ellis heard Adaline's revelations of her true age and the relationship she had with his father. It felt like a major omission not to have more scenes with Ellis's family after Adaline spilled the beans, seeing his parents and sister granting proper weight to Adaline's past, and figuring out her new place in their family. The comet returning "half a century late but just as beautiful as predicted" was cute shorthand, but not as good as seeing the whole aftermath.

I resented having the need for a second accident too. On top of being contrived in its timing, it diminished the sacrifice Adaline was prepared to make, seeing her loved ones grow old and die while she remained the same.

It also felt way too neat. The accident that caused her condition gets a pass for setting up the story. The second one, no way. I can only believe in one once-in-a-lifetime accident, no matter how long the life! The narrator tried to set up a common cause between the two, with a lunar meteor impact 800 years ago somehow affecting Earth weather patterns and causing it to snow in that particular part of California for the first time in 78 years, but I was not inclined to let him get away with it.

So yeah, while the standard-romance playbook demanded her becoming "normal" again in a parallel bookend accident, I think it would've been a much more interesting story without that twist.

I totally agree. I felt like a better ending would have been what you suggested. It would have been very bittersweet, but I still feel like it would have been better.

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Exactly what i thought. The second accident was so uncalled for. I mean if she loved him she would watch him grow old and love him the same way whereas he would always love her as well regardless of whether she ages or not.
The grey hair was not worked nicely as well but i do believe that it was nice that they cleared that she would age. It was obvious but these sort of definitive things buts a stop to message board where people would have made up conspiracy theories lol

Those are interesting perspectives. While I did have issues with the storytelling in the movie, I found different things to be problems!

1. Yeah, Adaline wasn't the "grab life by the horns and squeeze what you can get out of it for as long as you can, YOLO no ragrets" sort of person that stories are usually about. She was a composed, collected woman who loved books and language and history and when freed of personal bonds, that's what she chose to spend her life pursuing. She took pride in just being a good ordinary person and wanted nothing more than to be left alone to live life with her loved ones, and I loved her character for being exactly that. So while some people might dislike the movie for writing her this way, Adaline's version of immortal was what I loved best about it.

2. I think most people agree about the narration, me included. I can see why they wanted the fairy-tale tone, but the science technobabble just left me thinking, sorry, what?

I found the FBI suspicions perfectly believable. If I was a federal investigator who saw Communists and spies behind every corner in paranoid 1950s America, my initial reaction to coming across someone who lives like a fugitive and whose documentation says they're 46 but who looks like they're 25, is not oh, they're probably just well-preserved for their age. No, I would think they're probably an impostor who stole their identity papers for nefarious reasons! While Hollywood actresses these days do seem to defy the passage of time, it wasn't anywhere so extreme 50 or 60 years ago.

Anyway, what I found wrong with the movie was that it didn't provide enough of a view into Adaline's pivotal decision to stay at the end of the movie, and how people around her reacted and her reacting to their reactions, when the secret she spent so long hiding finally came out. Part of the reason we go see movies like this is the emotional spectacle and catharsis, and Age of Adaline didn't deliver enough of that.

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