The Age of Innocence
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Carolyn Farina, Daniel Day-Lewis, Domenica Cameron-Scorsese, Geraldine Chaplin, Tracey EllisDVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Chinese (Subtitled); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Korean (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 138 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-11-06
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Sony Pictures
Movie Reviews of The Age of Innocence
Movie Review: A Breathtaking Departure for Scorsese
Summary: 4 Stars
More renowned for his action and crime films, "The Age of Innocence" just happens to my favorite of Scorsese's works. It isn't perfect, but it's very, very good. Based on the eponymous novel by the great American writer, Edith Wharton, the film exposes the unwritten but ironclad social mores, and their attendant hypocrisies, of upper-class New York society in the late nineteenth century. Therefore, this film required the director to make his points in a subtler manner than we are accustomed to seeing from Scorsese. On that score (subtlety), I know some Wharton fans who were outraged by Scorsese's imposition of the voiceover (beautifully handled by Joanne Woodward) throughout the film, but this didn't bother me.
The film's central character is Newland Archer (Daniel Day Lewis), a respected lawyer and member of one of New York City's oldest and best-connected families. Although Newland harbors a more questioning view of the smug mores of his social circle than most of its other denizens, he feels his membership in this circle strongly enough to honor what he feels are the best of those mores. His recent engagement to May Welland (Winona Ryder), a fresh, pretty, and irreproachable young girl from a family exactly like his own, expresses Archer's solidarity with his social circle. May is unimaginative and, in her demure way, extremely controlling (the original iron hand in the velvet glove), but Archer does not seem to expect a wife who embodies all May's virtues, yet who shares his interest in art and books, or joins him in privately questioning the way things are always done in their world.
As the film opens, May's cousin, the Countess Ellen Olenska (Michelle Pfeiffer), has just arrived in New York City from Europe, fleeing an abusive, dissolute, and unfaithful husband. She hopes to divorce him and re-establish herself close to her family in New York. Ellen is the "black sheep" of the Welland/Mingott clan - her somewhat bohemian parents dragged her around Europe as she grew up, lavishing on her, as her grandmother Mingott puts it, "an expensive but incoherent education". Nevertheless, Granny Mingott, the matriarch of this family, dotes on her unusual and artistic granddaughter and shelters her. Very quickly after meeting Ellen, Newland sees in her the depth, charm, sophistication, and passionate nature that he might have wished for in his own wife, and he recognizes the difference in the feelings she arouses in him from the respectful affection engendered by May.
Newland's rapidly growing feelings for his soon-to-be cousin are further complicated by his law firm's request that he handle the matter of Ellen's divorce. But their preferred method of handling it, as they instruct Newland to do, is dissuade Ellen from seeking one. Thus, Newland is placed in the awkward position of persuading Ellen not to pursue the very freedom that would make her legitimately available to him. The Count Olenska has apparently forwarded letters to New York accusing Ellen of adultery with his secretary (Jonathan Pryce), who in reality simply helped Ellen escape her husband's reach. As Newland points out to Ellen: "Our laws favor divorce, but our social customs do not, especially if the woman has appearances in the least degree against her." Ellen insists that the Count's letter is full of lies, but she reluctantly agrees to follow Newland's advice and spare the family potential scandal by not seeking a divorce. Ellen's acquiescence is also rooted in her growing reciprocal feelings for Newland, whose blend of compassion, thoughtfulness, and integrity has touched her.
Thus, an impossible situation arises: Newland and Ellen have fallen in love, but as she has agreed not to divorce the Count in order to spare her family embarrassment, there is no point in Newland breaking his engagement, as Ellen will not eventually become available to him. The trapped and embittered Newland sees no other destiny for himself than to go through with his marriage to May. He does so, and tries to put Ellen out of his mind as he and May embark upon their married life, but a series of incidents brings Ellen and Newland close together once more, and eventually their social circle, including May, discerns the feeling between them, and assumes that they are lovers (although Newland and Ellen never do consummate their love).
The circle of hypocrites and moralists rallies around May and brings about a final separation between Newland and Ellen without anyone, including May, uttering aloud the slightest suspicion or accusation of adultery. May's only interest is in salvaging her marriage and keeping her husband, and her careful control of her inner feelings, and her production of her trump card at the eleventh hour, in the form of her early pregnancy, seal Newland's fate.
The performances are excellent all around. Day Lewis, first among equals, is deeply affecting as the conflicted and trapped Newland. Michelle Pfeiffer, as Ellen Olenska, gives probably the best performance of her career, despite seeming oddly unsuited to period costume - she walks awkwardly in the long dresses and bustles of the era. But she conveys the charmingly impulsive nature, depth of feeling, and capacity for sacrifice that so endears Ellen to Newland. The role of May Welland was probably, likewise, Winona Ryder's best performance (she was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress for it). Ms. Ryder does not have much range, but this quality was perfect for May, the hallmark of whose persona is "a hard, bright, blankness". The era's social mores are are also referenced by subplots, most notably the problematic marriage of Julius and Regina Beaufort (a strong performance by British actor Stuart Wilson as Julius). A group of exceptional supporting actors rounds out the cast: Mary Beth Hurt (Regina Beaufort), Geraldine Chaplin (May's mother), Sian Phillips (Newland's mother), Alec McCowen (Sillerton Jackson), and Richard Grant (Larry Leffert). Miriam Margulies is outstanding as Granny Mingott, and viewers with long memories may be touched to see the elegant Alexis Smith in a cameo as the elderly, aristocratic, Louisa Van der Luyden.
The production is not merely beautiful, it is breathtaking, with nothing spared to illustrate the sumptuous lives lived by this small circle who inhabit the azure realms of New York society during this era. The exquisite food, flowers, jewelry, clothing, china, and silver, are themselves a feast for the eyes. Unsurprisingly, the film won an an Academy Award for its costumes, which are ravishing. Composer Elmer Bernstein 's somber and delicate score was also nominated for an Oscar, as was the excellent script by the director and Jay Cocks.
The pace of the film has been called slow, but this reviewer did not find it unduly so; rather, the pace allows room for the welcome (and distressingly rare) establishment of character, which in turn lends the film richness. It is true that Wharton's novel is still more nuanced than this film, but it would have been impossible to convey all the subtle nuances expressed there in any film. In this reviewer's opinion, Scorsese did an excellent job of bringing to the screen Wharton's ironic yet powerful, cautionary tale of the betrayal of the self, and the price exacted by society for comfortable membership.
Summary of The Age of Innocence
Martin Scorsese does not sound like the logical choice to direct an adaptation of Edith Wharton's novel about manners and morals in New York society in the 1870s. But these are mean streets, too, and the psychological violence inflicted between characters is at least as damaging as the physical violence perpetrated by Scorsese's usual gangsters. At the center of the tale is Newland Archer (Daniel Day-Lewis), a somewhat diffident young man engaged to marry the very respectable May Welland (Winona Ryder). But Archer is distracted by May's cousin, the Countess Olenska (a radiant Michelle Pfeiffer), recently returned from Europe. As a married woman seeking a divorce, the countess is an embarrassment to all of New York society. But Archer is fascinated by her quick intelligence and worldly ways. Scorsese closely observes the tiny details of this world and this impossible situation; this is a movie in which the shift of someone's eyes can be as significant as the firing of a gun. The director's sense of color has never been keener, and his work with the actors is subtle. That's Joanne Woodward narrating, telling us only as much as we need to know--which is one reason why the climax comes as such a surprise.--Robert HortonDrama DVD Video
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