The Age of Adaline (5/10): A flawed romantic tale.

"Tell me something I can hold on to forever and never let go."

 

At first glance one might assume that The Age of Adaline is a failed adaptation of a romantic novel that tries to cram the different story elements into a two hour film, but in reality the screenplay was written by J. Mills Goodloe and Salvador Paskowitz directly for this movie. Having a narrator explain the reasons for the main character’s miraculous secret for not aging enforces even more that intuition that the film is a book adaptation and they’re simply trying to summarize as quick as possible the premise for the movie so they can move on to the love story. Unfortunately the screenplay is actually the greatest problem in The Age of Adaline. It seems as if director, Lee Toland Krieger, could’ve used Rashida Jones’s help with the screenplay because this is a step down from his previous collaboration with her in Celeste & Jesse Forever. If you want to watch a unique romantic film, then I’d recommend that movie over this one because The Age of Adaline is full of predictable twists and the romantic story is a bit rushed. The film never really sells the fact that a 100 year old woman should be depressed for having to push away the people she loves because she doesn’t age (I’d understand if she were much older, but a hundred years doesn’t sell it for me).

A narrator (Hugh Ross) introduces us to Adaline Bowman (Blake Lively) who was born at the beginning of the 20th century, but after having experienced an accident doesn’t age anymore. After eight decades she remains looking like her 29 year-old self. The only one who knows her secret is her daughter, Flemming (Ellen Burstyn) who by now is an old lady who has to introduce her to everyone else as a friend. Adaline has been changing her identity every ten or so years moving from one place to another never allowing herself to fall in love or tell her secret to anyone, but things change when she meets a young philanthropist named Ellis (Michiel Huisman) who quickly falls for her and relentlessly begins to pursue her with his unique charm. He invites Adaline for his parents’ (played by Harrison Ford and Kathy Baker) 40 year anniversary reunion, and that is where Adaline has to decide wether she should reveal her secret to him or continue running like she has been during all these years. If you’ve seen a decent number of romantic movies in the past, you will probably be able to predict where all this is heading. 

The reason why I put so much emphasis on the screenplay during the first paragraph of this review is because I actually enjoyed the performances from the cast, but the weak screenplay is what ultimately brought it down for me. Blake Lively and Michiel Huisman deliver believable and charismatic performances and they do have strong chemistry together, but everything seems to be rushed for the purpose of getting to the twist in the story and when it comes you already were expecting it. Lively plays her character with grace and elegance and you can tell time has made her wise. She wouldn’t fall in love with a simply charming and good looking guy, and Ellis easily proves there is something more about him. The relationship is believable, but it doesn’t take its time to build on it. Harrison Ford is incredibly refreshing in this film and he has some strong scenes with Lively and Baker. There is something quite disturbing about the twist that isn’t ever addressed and that is what I found more disappointing than the actual predictability of the story. The performances were all great, but with a better screenplay this could’ve been a stronger film because it does look beautiful. Overall I had a decent time with The Age of Adaline, but I can’t get past some of the flaws so watch this at your own risk.  

My Review: Bronson (7/10)

"You don't want to be trapped inside with me sunshine."

My first Nicolas Winding Refn film was Drive, which I absolutely fell in love with and it quickly became one of my favorite films of all time. I had no prior knowledge of his past work and went into his next film, Only God Forgives, with huge expectations. Despite having a great style and beautiful cinematography, I was really disappointed with the story. Now I've decided to go back and watch some of his past films, starting with Bronson and I must say that I really enjoyed it. Bronson centers on an extremely violent character, and that is one thing I've found in common with these three movies. Refn likes exploring this sort of violent behavior and unsettles the audience with these disturbing scenes. It was something that caught me off guard when I first saw Drive because the first half of the film seemed like it was going to explore the romantic relationship between the two leads, but once the elevator scene takes place it completely changes gears. In Only God Forgives the violence is heavily stylized and there is practically little narrative. Bronson may be a little more similar to Only God Forgives in that you don't get your typical narrative structure in the film, but Refn succeeds in making this a film about a violent character and not just a stylized violent film. The violence we get in Bronson all comes from this one character who the film centers on. It is in his nature to be violent and there is no explanation as to why he behaves this way, we just see him as who he really is. 

The screenplay co-written by Refn and Norman Brock centers on the true story of one of Britain's most notorious and violent criminals, Michael Paterson (Tom Hardy), who is better known with his alter ego name, Charles Bronson, which he adopted after having seen Death Wish starring that actor. Paterson introduces himself once he's in prison claiming he had a normal childhood. Ever since he can remember he's wanted to be famous so the easiest way to become famous was adopting the life of a criminal. In 1974 at the age of 19 he attempted to rob a post office and was sentenced to seven years in prison. Due to his violent behavior those 7 years turned into 34, and 30 of those he spent in solitary confinement due to his violent behavior. It's during this time that Bronson creates alternate realities celebrating his criminal persona and glorifying his violent behavior in his mind as he enjoys beating the prison guards and sometimes even taking them hostages in his cell.

This is Tom Hardy's movie and his physical performance is so impressive that it's simply irresistible. He has all this rage and anger in him and he looks like he can explode in any second on screen. Hardy is one of my favorite actors so when I say that this is his best performance, I'm giving it very high praise. This isn't a violent film, it's a surreal character study of a violent man. In no way is Refn trying to glorify this criminal, he is simply portraying this man as evil without trying to explain how he became this way. He simply is violent and there is no need to try to reason with it. The scenes where Refn takes us into his mind and we see him performing in front of an audience are really impressive, especially that two-faced scene. Refn executes this film perfectly with his usual eccentric scores combining electronic with classical music which fit perfectly the character of Bronson. In the midst of all the dark and violent scenes, Refn also introduces some subtle comedy in the mix. Bronson is a biopic unlike any other and it's hard to resist due to Hardy's furious and mouth foaming performance.