Review of The Age of Innocence (1993) by Antonius B — 10 Sep 2017

You may have to shrug off your disdain for films about the upper crust of society to watch this one. If you can do that, and if you can patiently allow the story to unfold, you will be rewarded. Director Martin Scorsese is true to Wharton's brilliant novel, and was painstaking in his attention to all of the little details of the time period. The narration by Joanne Woodward is excellent. The forbidden love Newland Archer (Daniel Day-Lewis) has for Countess Olenska (Michelle Pfeiffer) while being engaged to May Welland (Winona Ryder) grows ever so gradually, until it becomes a raging fire. At the same time, there is great restraint here, accurate to the morals of the day, but leaving one with a much deeper feeling of the angst involved as a result. The little signals each person in this love triangle send to one another often have great subtlety, yet it feels just as powerful as if they were yelling or screaming.

I confess I didn't think any of the three principal actors delivered a great performance - Day-Lewis is a little too morose, Pfeiffer lacks that teeny touch of wickedness, and Ryder's acting is the most suspect, despite her Oscar nomination. The chemistry between Day-Lewis and Pfeiffer does not seem authentic, but with all of that said, each of them is reasonably good. I think Scorsese was dead on with the tone and this is clearly a labor of love, but I don't think the story needed 139 minutes, and there are some issues with pace (which compound the understated action). On the other hand, he gives us some truly wonderful moments, all leading to an ending that is absolutely brilliant, which, just as with the novel, left me with goosebumps.