MovieChat Forums > The Age of Adaline (2015) Discussion > They didn't go into why she enjoys still...

They didn't go into why she enjoys still being alive


After all, she apparently has endured over 80 years of having periods...

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You raise two points there, both of which occurred to me during the movie and that I think the movie handled very well.


1. More limited one, periods.

it is unclear from the movie whether she got periods during the time of her not aging. The narration mentioed that she was in some sort of... I forget the exact wording, but it was a phrase that was vague and unexplained. "statis"? Something like that.

It seems to me that it is very likely she did NOT, as she was clearly shown as being sexually active for a very long time, yet there are no other children. Even with birth control, that seems unlikely. Unless her physical state made her temporarily barren.

The story would have been much different if she had had many children during that time. One could imagine a scenario where she becomes the immortal matriarch of a massive family. But that reduced her relationship with the male lead to...one of a number of men, instead of "THE ONE", which is required by the rom com template.

This was left up to the imagination of the viewer, In this, I think they did the right thing.


b. The bigger question of enjoying life without aging. IMO, they showed that she had issues from teh isolation, but still enjoyed life. If this was a sci fi film, that might have been a bigger element of the film. But this was a romance film, with a sci fi twist, so it was just lightly addressed. Again, imo, the right move.

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She would get to watch her own kid grow old and die. That's a good reason not to get pregnant. And she avoided relationships until Elliott.

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She rocked Harrison Ford's character's world.

Possibly that was an exception....

It's a little hard to believe that other than a couple of weeks in the 60s, that she was celibate and alone that entire time.

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She married and had a kid. She was always running away physically by changing locations and emotionally by avoiding relationships. That's what makes her relationship with Elliott special since she finally stopped.

Maybe one night stands, but I doubt it since she was born in an era with chaste values for women.

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peeps change though - especially as they age - travels also helps in that regard

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I gotto say, they should really make a film where the immortal chick really is a matriarch of a massive family. Like a mafia boss chick - ruling empires right and left, all from shadows - unbeknownst to all. :)

Think of all the drama that would bring.

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80 years is not that long, tbh
If it was 800, maybe then - but given all the changes that occur in the surroundings - and with tech constantly changing - there's always more to explore, I'd venture.

Perhaps more importantly - I find that old people usually get 'tired' because their bodies begin to fail. Their minds are no longer aglow, their eyes start going off - the connection to this world is starting to decay - body is a shadow of what it used to be and even walking starts to wear them down. It's this physical decay that causes detachment from this world and creates the appearance of a loss of interest in this world.

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It WOULDN'T be that long, except that she had to hide it. So, she was forced to move around.

If she had even come back and got her daughter, and they have moved around TOGETHER, during that time, pretending to be sisters, and later reverse mom daughter angle, ect.


The isolation was... somewhat... situational, instead of inherent in being immortal, in my opinion.


And like I said before, this was a rom com with a sci fi twist.

If it was meant to be more of a sci fi film, a lot of that could have, should have been covered.

But, it was not what this film was really about.

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My wife and lots of other women I've known enjoyed their pre-menopausal lives quite a bit, in spite of having periods. They didn't find being a woman a miserable burden.

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