THE AGE OF INNOCENCE
A film review by David Rind
Copyright 1993 David Rind
THE AGE OF INNOCENCE is Martin Scorcese's new movie based on Edith Wharton's story of the same name.
It is set in late 19th Century New York City among the upper crust of New York high society with scenes also taking place in Boston and Newport.
This is a complex and powerful drama. The plot focuses on three characters: Daniel Day-Lewis as a young lawyer, Winona Ryder as his new fiancee, and Michelle Pfeiffer as Winona Ryder's cousin, who has returned from Europe to escape a bad marriage. Early in the movie it becomes clear that the characters played by Day-Lewis and Pfeiffer are falling in love, but societal constraints make such a match impossible. The story follows these characters as they try to reconcile responsibilities with desires amid the hypocrisies of their surrounding society.
The performances are impeccable. Winona Ryder seems somewhat cast against type as the less intellectually interesting of the two women -- an odd role for an actress who has played some very intriguing female characters in recent years -- but plays it skillfully. Daniel Day-Lewis is excellent as a decent man torn between love and responsibility. Michelle Pfeiffer is superb as ever. Her character is played with depth and complexity. It must have been an extremely challenging role, but she carries it off with ease. Her appearance in this picture could not help but conjure up images of her role in DANGEROUS LIASONS where she played a very different sort of character but where again, societal roles were of utmost importance.
Scorcese lets the audience know that he is the director. There are some odd cuts, camera angles, and close-ups that seem to be intended more to remind the audience of his existence than out of any real benefit to the feel of the picture. He does use recurring shots of logs burning in a fireplace to very good effect.
Supporting performances are also excellent, as is the use of music and costumes. Some of the settings shown are a fascinating glimpse of how the east coast cities looked a century ago.
The characterizations are intricate, and at the end of the movie the group I saw this movie with disagreed about some of the possible interpretations of motivations. The characters all seemed remarkably real and palpable, and behaved in ways that felt comprehensible to a modern audience despite the setting in a society so superficially different. This is a story with something complex to say about romance and responsibilities and made for a striking contrast with the story told in the current bestseller "The Bridges of Madison County" which I had recently read.
This movie is also quite long, running for about two and a half hours. Before going into the film, I was warned by a friend who had seen it the day before that it might be hard to stay awake. I had no problem with this, and was in no rush for the film to end. It was textured and complex and produced some interesting conversations afterwards among the group that had seen it. I strongly recommend this movie.
Rating 9 out of 10.
-- David Rind rind@enterprise.bih.harvard.edu
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