For all of March, a movie poster for the Age of Adaline sat above the Cathedral Parkway subway entrance. After rehearsal I would walk to the stop and watch the glowing image of Blake Lively grow as I walked closer. Despite the lovely image of Blake with taught, radiant skin and identically twinkled eyes, the poster struck a nerve and I had to figure out why.
I looked up the trailer on YouTube.
The camera flies us into a picturesque mid-century Levittown. A cop pulls a car over. The disbelieving cop stares at Adeline's perfectly coiffed 1950's curls, her matte red lipstick.
COP
Ma'am, it says here you were born in 1908. That makes you 45 years old.
ADALINE
That's right.
Adaline gets married, has a daughter. And then on a cold winter night Adaline accidentally drives her car off a bridge. She plummets into the icy waters below.
NARRATOR
In that moment, something incredible happened.
She gets struck by lightning.
NARRATOR
Its effect was almost magical. Adaline is henceforth immune to the ravages of time. She will never age another day.
Shots of Adaline running from cops! Adaline holds new passports for new identities! Adaline hugs her gray-haired daughter. The trailer makes it clear that despite her beauty, and her keen fashion sense, Adaline lives a lonely life.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. That's what Adaline was reminding me of! Both are movies where the protagonist and time are at odds. And then I realized why I am pissed. Because of course a female version of Benjamin Button is a movie where the woman stays young forever.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. That's what Adaline was reminding me of! Both are movies where the protagonist and time are at odds. And then I realized why I am pissed. Because of course a female version of Benjamin Button is a movie where the woman stays young forever.
The images of the two movies side by side demonstrate most of my point:
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Benjamin Button gets to grow and change. Adaline is frozen forever as a 29-year-old.
(Thank GOD she got stuck before she went "over the hill" at 30, right? Who would see THAT movie?)
Benjamin meets the love of his life when he's little. The trailer shows an ancient-looking 7-year-old Benjamin meeting a red-haired girl. She stares at him in wonder.
In her article about shaming Renee, Buzzfeed writer Anne Helen Peterson argues:
"The performative surprise, disgust, and shame directed toward aging [women] is super contradictory: it suggests that the ideal woman is young and without wrinkles, but attempts by women to maintain that ideal are subject to derision."
So what's the perfect solution? How do we, as women, escape the shame of growing older, and the double shame of trying to hide that we're growing older as we do it? To be struck by lightning after you've crashed your car into a freezing lake and have the "incredible," "magical" fortune to stay 29 forever.
(Thank GOD she got stuck before she went "over the hill" at 30, right? Who would see THAT movie?)
Benjamin meets the love of his life when he's little. The trailer shows an ancient-looking 7-year-old Benjamin meeting a red-haired girl. She stares at him in wonder.
YOUNG DAISY
Are you sick?
YOUNG BENJAMIN
They said I was gonna die soon but...maybe not.
YOUNG DAISY (smiling)
You're odd.
Daisy and Benjamin grow into life-long lovers. Daisy's attraction to Benjamin begins with his unconventional features, his kindness and his "odd"ness.
Adaline's love interest is attracted to her for a different reason.
ELLIS
First time I saw you I knew I had to meet you. I didn't know when or how but I knew I would.
Hollywood (and everywhere) treats its characters the same way as it treats its actors. George Clooney's hair is allowed to turn a handsome gray while Renee Zellweger isn't allowed to get Botox, or rather, isn't allowed to get bad Botox.
What a surprise. Ellis is attracted to Adaline for her beauty.
At one point in the trailer, Benjamin returns home to the woman who raised him. She is shocked to see his younger face, and runs to hold him.
BENJAMIN
It's a funny thing coming home. You realized what's changed is you.
And Benjamin's changes are reflected on the outside, with time wearing away the wrinkles he was born with. Adaline's mind and soul grow and learn over the decades, but her outward appearance is immovable.
In her article about shaming Renee, Buzzfeed writer Anne Helen Peterson argues:
"The performative surprise, disgust, and shame directed toward aging [women] is super contradictory: it suggests that the ideal woman is young and without wrinkles, but attempts by women to maintain that ideal are subject to derision."
So what's the perfect solution? How do we, as women, escape the shame of growing older, and the double shame of trying to hide that we're growing older as we do it? To be struck by lightning after you've crashed your car into a freezing lake and have the "incredible," "magical" fortune to stay 29 forever.
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