The Age of Adaline 2015

Wesley Morris, Grantland: This is a film that needs Amy Adams's twinkle or Sandra Bullock's nervous stammering. It needs a star with life. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: The film is as tender and endearing as a lamb, a lamb at rest in a fragrant atmosphere. It's a film that has a determined, unironic respect for things past. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: Blake Lively's subtle, expressive performance sets the tone for this thoroughly ludicrous, thoroughly enjoyable romantic drama. Read more

Jesse Hassenger, AV Club: For a movie that emulates literature, The Age Of Adaline never fits comfortably into a particular form-literary or cinematic. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: The makings of an interesting movie are here, but the script, written by J. Mills Goodloe and Salvador Paskowitz, collapses on itself in the third act. Read more

Tom Russo, Boston Globe: Leave it to Harrison Ford to pull off a rescue that one of his signature heroes might envy. In a deftly crafted supporting role, Ford does as much as Lively herself to shape Adaline's strange predicament into something genuinely resonant. Read more

Adam Graham, Detroit News: For a movie about a 106-year-old - albeit one trapped in the body of a 29-year-old - "The Age of Adaline" doesn't have a lot of wisdom. Read more

Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly: Adaline is consistently gorgeous to look at-and a good reminder that love, even when it's complicated or painful or doesn't last, is a whole lot better than immortality. Read more

Jon Frosch, Hollywood Reporter: Lively is an odd screen presence - somehow both warm and cold, accessible and recessive. She's long been ripe for a breakthrough lead role that allows her to stretch and surprise. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: A sweeping romance beautifully wrapped in classy couture and slightly suspect in the way it uses metaphysics to manipulate matters of the heart. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: The Age of Adaline is a modern romantic fairy tale set in San Francisco, marred by bad narration and an unnecessary desire to overexplain random magic. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: A preposterous premise treated with great solemnity. Lively shines, though, as does Ford. Read more

Richard Brody, New Yorker: The conceit endows Lively's regal air of distracted superiority with an intermittent pathos, but the director, Lee Toland Krieger, brings no identifiable perspective, and the screenwriters ... hardly tap a century's worth of material. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Burstyn is as beautiful and emotionally present as always and Ford - after so many years of grumpily picking up paychecks - seems delighted to be acting again, and in a real movie. Read more

Jocelyn Noveck, Associated Press: Lively is appealing, natural and often touching. Read more

Andrew Lapin, NPR: Again and again, director Lee Toland Krieger (Celeste & Jesse Forever) allows shades of a more nuanced movie to pop up along the margins, only to steer instead toward innocent niceties. Read more

Katherine Pushkar, New York Daily News: Plausibility, shmausibility. This is pretty schmaltz done right. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Far too often here, Adaline's parade of period dresses, coats and handbags stand in for the richness of human experience. Read more

Tirdad Derakhshani, Philadelphia Inquirer: It fails to pursue any of the fascinating questions its premise raises. Instead, it dives headfirst into Nicholas Sparks territory and explores, though not without some charm, Adaline's romantic life. Read more

Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times: This is one of those movies that have you wondering: Long before the actors signed up and the locations were chosen and the sets were built and the filming began, how did someone not say, "Um, we have a big problem with this story"? Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Ultimately, you believe Lively as an old soul in a young body, carrying a heavy secret; you hope, somehow, that love will bring her a happy ending. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Someone should steal this concept and make a decent movie out of it. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Starved of sufficient comedy or drama, "The Age of Adaline" is a pipsqueak. Read more

Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic: Like Adaline, the film gives the sense of being somewhat uncomfortable in 2015, but while the movie makes a case for romanticizing the past, Adaline's story shows the limitations of detaching yourself from the present. Read more

Nathalie Atkinson, Globe and Mail: Lively glides across the screen from scene to scene - like the ballroom of a grand old hotel with a suitor in hot pursuit - with all the emotional weight of a model in a perfume commercial. Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: Lovers of the genre will find plenty to love about the stylish Age of Adaline and may find themselves rooting through pockets for a tissue at points, a romance movie equivalent of a standing ovation. Read more

Inkoo Kang, TheWrap: Lively's never been better, but "Adaline" is more interested in what she's wearing than what her character's thinking. Read more

Trevor Johnston, Time Out: Harrison Ford's performance is the big surprise in this otherwise wonky, frequently shambling tall tale. Read more

Liz Braun, Toronto Sun: You can't really call The Age of Adaline a movie. It's more like a series of pretty pictures held together by a remarkably idiotic story. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Lively's performance is appropriately mysterious but too shallow to allow audiences to empathize with her character. The fault lies more in the screenplay, which doesn't give her character much depth. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Village Voice: Everything is just a little off: The plot is resolved too tidily, and Lively appears ill at ease - she's stiff and self-consciously ladylike, as if she were a little embarrassed by the material. Read more

Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture: The Age of Adaline has a fundamental weakness: The tepid romance is supposed to structure everything else, so the film feels disjointed - a series of good, sometimes even great scenes in search of an organizing principle. Read more

Stephanie Merry, Washington Post: "The Age of Adaline" works best as a simple story of boy meets girl; girl falls in love; girl mulls whether or not to reveal that she'll stay young forever. Everything else is just a lot of unnecessary noise. Read more

John Anderson, Wall Street Journal: Okay, it's hooey. "Adaline" is not a documentary. What it is, though, is seductive. Read more