Review of The Age of Innocence (1993) by Derek E — 04 May 2011

The Age of Innocence is a very well-done movie. It deals with a troubled romance surrounding Daniel Day-Lewis' life in New York City's high society of the 1870's. Basically, he serves as a figure of conformity cemented by the pressures of family tradition and seeks independence and a realistic, passionate lifestyle elsewhere.

You guessed it. It is his relationships that are the vehicles of this tension. Should he abandon his systematic wife for a more real, but shunned lifestyle with a potential divorcee or please his friends and family with a steady relationship with the former? It appears as a cliche romance, but Scorsese does well with Lewis to make the audience really understand why this decision is more difficult than it would seem.

It's kind of like the Titanic plot ploy, but set in the 1870's and has a lot more responsible decision making from both contributors to the relationship. Daniel Day-Lewis and Michelle Pfiefer maintain their character.

They have a strange calmness and responsible hora about them that I suspect is accurate of real royalty of this period. I'm very glad to see this movie context for a change instead of the primitive 21st century chick flicks where everybody is just running around making hasty sexual decisions.

If you love watching passion and rationality fight with each other via a relationship, and love movies that are well-done with few unnecessary scenes/character changes, give this one a look. 8/10.