September 14, 2015 Age of Adaline
The Age of Adeline is a 2015 romance starring Blake Lively. Earlier this year, Ana and I saw the ads for it and decided that Adaline and Henry Morgan would make the perfect couple since they were both ageless. I wondered if Forever had been inspired by Adeline or if Adaline had been inspired by Forever, but there was no mention of any connection between the two. J Mills Goodloe wrote The Age of Adaline in 2003—at least the first draft. It was inspired by Amelie. Matt Miller was the creator of Forever and the idea came to him while he was having a discussion about death with his 5 year old son.
However, there was a short lived series on Fox called New Amsterdam that had a similar plot. New Amsterdam starred Nikolaj Coster Waldru—aka Jamie Lannister—as an NYC detective who is 400 years old. He saved the life of a Native America girl who put a spell on him. She said the spell of immortality could only be broken when he found true love. The show aired 8 episodes before it was canceled.
Pete Hamill has laid claim to both New Amsterdam and Forever, saying that is 2003 book Forever had a similar plot as both the 2008 and 2014 shows. No one has commented as to if they had even read his book, let alone inspired by it.
In any case, it seems as if these plots and themes are popular. Perhaps the recent fascination with the paranormal but a dis-satisfaction with vampires, werewolves and zombies has led us to examine immortality in a far more practical manor. I don’t know. But I do like the idea was I liked both Forever and The Age of Adaline.
Both Adeline and Forever show the immortal with children who appear older than them. Both show characters are afraid to get close to people. Both Adaline and Henry have to reinvent themselves periodically in order to avoid being found out. Adaline becomes mortal again when she finds true love. Henry we never got to find out what his fate would have been. Perhaps we never will. In Adeline, we get a semi-scientific explanation for her ageless appearance. Henry appears to have been affected by someone or something, but what it was was never revealed exactly.
carilynn27 