'adaline' Does Too Little With Premise To Be Film For The Ages

A promising idea is at the heart of "The Age of Adaline," but no one connected with the movie seems willing to explore it: How wonderful it might have been had the movie stopped there, but no, she is struck by lightning and revives, and from then on she can't age a day. Lively, the screenwriters and director Lee Toland Krieger seem to have one idea about the character, that Adaline's inability to age has caused her to live a kind of fugitive life, in which she has been afraid to form attachments. With lots of assistance from awkward narration, the film tells the story of Adaline finally finding love, but the relationship she forges doesn't seem like much. [...] worthy of note is Anthony Ingruber, who plays the same character in the flashbacks, imitating Ford shamelessly, from the voice, to the swagger, to the sneering wise-guy smile. Ford and his young imitator help, but the movie is already dead when they show up, and reanimating bolts of lightning only happen in the movies.