Film Disquisition Volume 1: Blake Lively: An Exhaustive Examination; Episode 12: The Age of Adaline (2015)

Film Disquisition

Space Money Octagon Presents
The Filmography Disquisition Series
Volume 1
Blake Lively: An Exhaustive Examination

Episode 12 – The Age of Adaline (2015)

Adaline Bowman is a kind, genuine woman, who dabbles in identity theft. Also, she was born in 1908 – and is ageless due to a supernatural car crash and lightning strike. She lives in San Francisco and works at a library. One day, she’s tasked with digitizing old film reels. Watching them triggers a flashback of her life up until now. We learn Adaline was married and had a child before her supernatural accident. When her husband died, she raised her daughter alone. But as the years passed, her never-aging appearance arouses suspicion from friends, neighbors, and eventually the federal government. Adaline escapes prying eyes and the g-men and comes up with a plan to protect herself: every ten years, she will move and assume a new name. This continues until the modern day: Adaline’s daughter is now elderly and the end of another decade approaches. As New Year’s Day and Adaline’s birthday arrive, she celebrates with friends at a New Year’s Eve party at a historic ballroom. There she finds an old photo of herself and also a handsome man who ends up spending a lot of time and energy trying to woo her. This includes threatening to withhold donations to her library unless she goes on a date with him. Things go very well, but this end up rekindling feelings of her dead husband, as well as another secret lover that she left before he had a chance to propose. Handsome man oversteps, though, by showing up at her home without permission. This puts a chill on things, until Adaline’s aging daughter shares her feelings with Adaline, wanting her to live as normal as a life as possible. Adaline gives it a second chance with handsome man and they really hit it off.
Adaline agrees to a weekend getaway with his family. BUT IT TURNS OUT HANDSOME MAN’S DAD IS THE SECRET LOVER DUDE THAT SHE LEFT DECADES AGO AND THEY HAVE A WEIRD MOMENT IN FRONT OF EVERYONE ELSE. In another flashback, we learn of a time when handsome man’s dad was also a handsome man and they had a lovely romance in Europe. Handsome old man confronts her about being ageless and she kind of freaks out and bails. But then she gets into a car accident that kind of approximates the supernatural accident she was in more than 70 years ago and she technically dies before being resuscitated. This undoes whatever sciencey magic thingy happened to her before, allowing her to age and love normally without fear of unwanted attention.

Film rankings thus far:
1. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
2. The Town
3. Elvis and Anabelle
4. Savages
5. The Private Lives of Pippa Lee
6. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2
7. Accepted
8. Green Lantern
9. Hick
10. Simon Says
11. New York I Love You

Series overview:
Join Vanessa and Toben on an academic and well-researched quest to answer one of the most pressing cinematic questions of our time: what’s the best movie Blake Lively’s ever been in? During volume one of this series, they will watch – in chronological order – every single major motion picture featuring the actress Blake Lively. At the end of each episode, an updated ranking of Blake Lively movies will be determined, until the inevitable conclusion.

Contact: [e-mail] (emails may be read on the show)

Hosts: Vanessa (http://twitter.com/the_virago) and Toben (http://twitter.com/pursuedbyabeard)

Music: Mozart’s Bassoon Concerto in B Flat Major, K. 191 – I. Allegro
performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra

Record start sound effect: https://www.freesound.org/people/Corsica_S/sounds/174771/
Fireplace sound effect: https://www.freesound.org/people/juskiddink/sounds/215658/

Intro voice: @iamastove (twitter.com/iamastove)

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This was actually a terrible idea for a podcast