Time-shifting stories are a tricky breed. Sometimes they succeed spectacularly well, such as Richard Curtis' About Time or Woody Allen's Midnight In Paris. All too often they end up lying on the shelf labeled “What were they thinking?” - consider Brendan Fraser's Blast From The Past.

So is with some trepidation that we take on this odd tale of a woman who no longer grows old: warning bells sound early. With a screenplay co-written by J. Mills Goodloe (his adaptation of Nicholas Sparks' The Best Of Me was little more than woeful) and Salvador Paskowitz (best known for the alarmingly titled Nic And Tristan Go Mega Dega), direction by Lee Toland Krieger (the passable Celeste & Jesse Forever) and Harrison Ford (himself an increasing liability in romantic drama) co-starring, it falls to Gossip Girl's Blake Lively to pull things together in the lead role of Adaline. And to her credit, she almost does.

The Age of Adaline starts at the turn of the 20th century when the most unusual confluence of coincidence brings Adaline Bowman back from the dead. It also stops her from ageing and for the rest of her now immortal life, she remains 29. To keep her fate a secret, she move home every decade and a lonely life follows. That's until her daughter (Ellen Burstyn – Interstellar) encourages Adaline to take a chance on love with the dashing Ellis Jones (Game of Thrones' Michiel Huisman). She does, but doesn't expect his father (Ford) to open the door at the family estate. He's a former lover with a long memory and her bluff doesn't withstand scrutiny. But will Jones Snr let this cat out of its bag to play among the pigeons?

Surprisingly for a film that trades this heavily on stereotype as it rather gushingly presses every button marked romantic cliché (all that's missing is a bodice to rip), The Age of Adaline is quite watchable. Narration Garrison Keillor style, helps us over the artifice while Toland Krieger's concise style suits the handsome but modest production. Where it falls away is in the theatrics of its central characters which Ford, Huisman and Lively are unable to wrestle free from the matinée. If this were TV you'd be watching it on Starz rather than HBO.

On one hand, Lively is perfect for the role with a face made for soft focus, her beauty an easy fit for every age. Her presence also reflects a one-size-fits-all approach to an old fashioned production steeped in candle light - it's attractive but wants for a stab of incandescent which it simply doesn't get. Although the traditional appeal of The Age Of Adaline may lack the poignancy of a Midnight In Paris, fortunately it's no Blast From The Past either.

// COLIN FRASER

Previewed at Sony Theatre, Sydney, on 10 February 2015