Film: Many people dream of living forever. For Adaline (Blake Lively), that seems to be a reality since a car accident in 1935. For since that fateful night, she has not aged a day. Now she leads a very secluded life. She doesn't want to commit herself to anyone she is going to lose anyway. Only her daughter Flemming (Ellen Burstyn) knows the secret that Adaline has been carrying around for so many decades now and that keeps forcing her to take on a new identity in a new town. A love affair is already out of the question for Adaline. She has already had to break the heart of a beloved man once. She doesn't want to experience that again. But then she meets the charming Ellis Jones (Michiel Huisman) and just can not resist his attraction. For the first time in many years, she experiences a feeling of happiness she never thought she'd feel again. And in fact, she begins to believe that she could have a real future with Ellis. But that dream is abruptly shattered when she meets his parents.
Forever Adaline doesn't really make sense, is unrestrainedly cheesy, and is arguably gritty at some moments. And yet, the film is simply beautiful and certainly one of the most wonderful cinematic romances of recent years. Director Lee Toland Krieger (Celeste & Jesse) creates a true epic here, which for once is pleasantly not a remake or a sequel, nor is it based on a novel or any other already known template. So it's finally a new story that actually reveals something like originality in some moments. And even though the reasoning given by the off-screen narrator for Adaline's eternal youth sounds arguably harebrained, the story works really well in its fantastical way.
This is partly due to the production. Lee Toland Krieger and his team do a great job of bringing to life each of the decades in which we get to watch Adaline with a fitting set and beautiful imagery. The imagery is indulgent and perfectly immerses the viewer in each time period. As a result, you never feel like you're being pulled out of the story by the time jumps. The music also feels very ingratiating, adding to the feeling of being allowed to indulge in unrestrained pining. Hah, how lovely.
Another reason the film works so well is the actors. Gossip Girl Blake Lively is simply adorable as the romantic heroine. With Michiel Huisman (Game of Thrones) she was given an extremely charming partner. Sparks fly between the two and you want nothing more than for them to grow old together happily. Roughneck Harrison Ford shows himself here once from a completely different, very soft side. And he does it wonderfully, too. Admittedly, you won't find any Oscar-worthy performances here. But all actors manage to fill their characters with life and make them very accessible for the audience. And that is a more than respectable achievement in view of the rather one-dimensional character drawing.
For those who have nothing to do with romance and for whom cinema must be a reflection of reality, Forever Adaline is truly not the right film. If, on the other hand, you like to dive into wonderful love stories, are not ashamed of your tears and want to experience one of the most sympathetic love couples of recent times, you should not miss this enchanting work. For this there is a very clear: Absolutely worth seeing!!!
Picture + Sound: The technical implementation of the DVD is on a very high level. The image sharpness is great and allows even small details and textures to show to advantage. The colouring looks very warm and natural and the matching of black levels and contrasts also support the positive overall impression of the picture quality. The same can be said for the sound. Although there is no big effects fireworks due to the genre, yet the surround channels are repeatedly claimed by atmospheric ambient sounds and minor sound effects, resulting in an overall very coherent sound carpet. Very good!
Extras: As a bonus, the DVD offers the quite worth seeing Making of Style of the Decades (approx. 17:34 min.), which shows how the different decades were implemented in equipment, costumes or even hairstyles. Also very interesting is the short featurette about how the actor was found to play the younger version of Harrison Ford's character (approx. 7:59 min.). There are also two cut scenes (approx. 4:17 mins), eleven promo interviews with cast & crew (approx. 22:13 mins), as well as interviews from the red carpet at the US premiere (approx. 9:56 mins) and the trailer for the film. Good!
Conclusion: Forever Adaline is a wonderful romance that is perfect fodder for all hopeless romantics with its sympathetically drawn characters, wonderful story and spellbinding production. The DVD presents the film in appealing picture and sound quality and also holds a few nice extras. Overall, it gets a more than deserved: Absolutely recommended!
Ein Artikel von Frankfurt-Tipp
