The Age of Innocence (1993)

After reading the Edith Wharton novel, I took another look at Martin Scorsese's adaptation of The Age of Innocence, released in 1993. This was my third time seeing it, and it is just as great as I remember it. At the time, it was a huge departure for Scorsese, who had up to then specialized in dark stories of criminals and other assorted lowlifes (one exception being The Last Temptation of Christ). But as Scorsese was quick to point out, the actions of the privileged New Yorkers in the 1870s weren't much different than the characters Scorsese was used to--they were just more sophisticated. One friend of mine has called this film "Mean Streets in corsets."

I won't recap the plot much, as I have described it in the book review below. The film is extraordinarily faithful to the book, of course omitting some characters and scenes but adding nothing. Newland Archer, here played by Daniel Day-Lewis, is among the upper crust of society, but within him lurks the temptation to break free and follow his bliss. He is fortuitously engaged to May Welland (Winona Ryder), who is young, beautiful, and rich, but he really doesn't understand what love is until he meets May's cousin, the disgraced Countess Olenska (Michelle Pfeiffer), who made a bad marriage to a Polish count and has come back home to New York to be in the bosom of her family.

But New York is just as cruel to her, with its unspoken rules and regulations. Day-Lewis points out certain things, such as the street she lives on is respectable, but not fashionable. Or that divorce, which she seeks, is favored by the law but not by society. The entire class walks a thin line, and deviating it from it can cause tumult and waves of shock.

Day-Lewis, who helps Pfeiffer navigate this, falls in love with her, and she with him. But he has unwittingly set them permanently apart, by talking her out of a divorce and pushing up the date of his wedding with Ryder. He thinks of himself as dead, but looks at Ryder's winsome face and imagines her dead. He decides that he will chuck it all and run off with Pfeiffer, but he underestimates Ryder, who will keep the marriage intact. Earlier she was shown winning an archery competition, a sly metaphor for her skill in maneuvering her clueless husband.

The screenplay, by Scorsese and Jay Cocks, is so true to the book that large sections of it are narrated by Joanne Woodward. Those who are not disposed to voiceover narration may be annoyed, but I found it enriching. Everything about the film is first-rate, from the costumes and production design to the cinematography by Michael Ballhaus. Scorsese uses a lot of crayons from the box, most deftly a moving camera, but it does not come across as over-directed.

What struck me about the film this time is how breathtakingly romantic it is. The scene in which Day-Lewis unbuttons Pfeiffer's glove and kisses her wrist has as much passion as any scene with two naked people. I mentioned in my review of Spring Breakers how eroticism has almost disappeared from mainstream films, and so has true romanticism. What we get now are characters who fall in love because the script says they do, but here the romance is palpable and excellently acted.

The Age of Innocence is one of Scorsese's best films, and one of the better literary adaptations ever made.