A phenomenon was occurring in 1937 California: snow. The frosty air bit at 29-year-old Adaline Bowman’s pristine hands as she gripped the steering wheel. But minutes after starting her car, she was found lying next to it in a stream. Body temperature lowered and heart stopped, Bowman had died in a crash. But the story did not end there; as a lightning bolt struck the river and defibrillated her heart, Bowman was resurrected and the magic began. Because of this medical miracle, she was rendered immortal. The same hands that held onto the wheel moments before would cease to age for nearly eight decades in this disappointing and far-from-magical romance, “The Age of Adaline.”

For Bowman, the fact that she would never age again troubled her. She scoured medical libraries searching for answers she would never find. Determined to steer clear of the label of a scientific curiosity, Bowman turned to decades of fake I.D.’s and changes in location. The film begins in present time with Bowman seeking out a new I.D. and preparing to move to Oregon to continue concealing her identity. Her daughter (Ellen Burstyn), born before the accident, now appears triple her age and is contemplating moving into a nursing home.

Bowman struggles with her inability to form deep relationships with anyone other than her dog without the risk of revealing her condition. But as she celebrates at a New Year’s Eve party with her blind friend, she, of course, catches the eye of a charming young man named Ellis Jones (Michiel Huisman) from across the room.

What follows, well, can be derived from simply watching the trailer. The movie rarely shifts from its predicted plotline and fosters some uncomfortable moments between Jones’ father, William Jones (Harrison Ford), and Bowman when it becomes clear there is history between the two- literal history that goes back to before Jones was born.

As Bowman experienced a fascinating range of American history, it was disappointing to find that “The Age of Adaline” did a poor job of revealing the wisdom and perspective she might have gained from living through events such as the Great Depression, World War II, and civil rights movements. With an expectation for the movie to choose a side between highlighting a sophisticated woman and providing the current American public with yet another unrealistic love story, it was awkward to watch the movie’s attempt to fulfill both aspects.

For a movie that reeked of potential, much of this was crushed in the forced storyline, Lively’s stiff acting and strained symbolism. The movie was a mere shadow of what it could’ve been, although it succeeds in confirming that immortality may not be as glamourous as expected and that we should instead embrace cliché adages and “live this year as though it were [our] last.”