Review of The Age of Innocence (1993) by William P — 16 Feb 2004

[size=3]Edith Wharton's novel [i]The Age of Innocence [/i]is adapted by, of all directors, Martin Scorsese...the violent poet of modern-day angst who has wowed audiences with [i]Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull [/i]and [i]Goodfellas[/i]. The story involves the unspoken emotional repression of a group of 19th-century New York socialites, and the forbidden lusts that threaten to dissolve the rules of society. The material would seem more suited to a stuffy "prestige-movie" director like James Ivory, and indeed there are times when Scorsese seems to be in over his head. The director has always been more comfortable with characters who heedlessly express their passion, rather than respectfully suppressing it. Perhaps that is why [i]The Age of Innocence [/i]has the same tedious, morose tone of most of Ivory's costume dramas, and fails to be particularly engrossing to the audience. However, there is also material in this story that plays to Scorsese's strengths. As a director, Scorsese has always been more concerned with creating a world or visually expressing the emotions of his characters than with plot mechanics. With [i]The Age of Innocence, [/i]Scorsese has created a visual feast of a movie...almost literally, since there are many near-fetishistic close-ups of the luxurious food and drink that the socialities enjoy. Unfortunately, the film is not nearly as successful at presenting characters we can identify with. There comes a point in this film when the theme of emotional repression becomes tedious and downright boring. Daniel Day-Lewis, normally a magnetic actor, can not convey the seething lust or buried curiosity that fuels his character...he seems like an affable fop who happens to develop a boyish crush on a mysterious countess (Michelle Pfeiffer). Scorsese is usually a director who can effortlessly convey passion and intensity. Here, though, he seems to be so in awe of his ability to re-create a period that he forgets to tell a compelling story (a similar fate befalls Steven Spielberg in [i]Amistad[/i]). [i]The Age of Innocence [/i]is certainly exquisitely made and is much more kinetic and fascinating than the stuffy Merchant-Ivory productions. But the one critical flaw of the film is that it has forgotten that a film attempting to convey buried passion should itself be passionately alive.[/size].

[size=3](BASIC)[/size].