The Age of Innocence (1993): A Review

THE AGE OF INNOCENCE (1993)

Sumptuous is the best way to describe the look of The Age of Innocence. However, there is more than just lavish sets and costuming within the confines of Martin Scorsese's film. The Age of Innocence is a character study of the Gilded Age, where formal manners can be as brutal as a gunshot.

Newland Archer (Daniel Day-Lewis) is a respected and respectable lawyer, engaged to the pretty, proper and equally respectable May Welland (Winona Ryder). In all ways these two very proper upper-class New Yorkers are ideal and ideally suited. 

The only hint of scandal comes from May's cousin, Countess Ellen Olenska (Michelle Pfeiffer). The countess is a shamed woman, having left her philandering Polish husband but not divorcing him. Countess Olenska is beautiful and bright and kind, but her shady past puts old money New York society at arm's length, outraging Newland's sense of right and wrong. 

He becomes Olenska's champion, much to May's delight, who is fond of her relative. Soon, however, the countess and the lawyer become drawn to each other. Though little suggests that there is anything other than a friendship between them, there are more than a few eyebrows raised. Their passion is denied by both, with Newland and May marrying. Yet, Newland and Ellen continue carrying a torch for the other, but will they ever be together?

The Age of Innocence is a tragedy of love. Underneath the Oscar-winning costumes and grand settings, The Age of Innocence delves deep into how society's mores can cause misery for individuals. Ellen, for example, is held to a different standard than either her husband or Julius Beaufort (Stuart Wilson). Beaufort is a serial womanizer, but his liaisons are tolerated in part because he and his wife Regina (Mary Beth Hurt) do not separate. In this world, divorce is a greater sin than adultery. We know that Ellen sparks more than Newland's loins. 

She is the opposite of the proper, quiet and very respectable May. That is not to say that Ellen is a wanton woman, going from man to man and, to use modern terms, having a high body count. She instead is her own woman, aware of her worth independent of a man. Why should she endure personal unhappiness to please strangers?

I found that the acting was a bit stylized. However, I found that in this case, the more mannered acting worked to capture this very formal world of elegance and propriety. There are many soft voices in The Age of Innocence, but again, that fits within the strictness of this society. 

I am not big on Daniel Day-Lewis, finding him at times to be yes, hammy. Here, I think the restraint that director and cowriter Martin Scorsese (adapting the Edith Wharton novel with Jay Cocks) got Day-Lewis to make lends the actor to give a better performance. Newland Archer would be more repressed even when expressing moral outrage at Ellen's treatment. Day-Lewis is matched by Pfieffer as the countess. She is as fiery and forceful as society allows her, maybe a bit more. 

It was Ryder who received an Oscar nomination for The Age of Innocence, and I think she played the part perfectly. May is outwardly demure, unaware, almost sweet. However, in her final scene where she tells Newland that she is pregnant and had told Ellen before she told him, we sense that perhaps she was aware of their emotional affair without saying so. Was she the naive girl both took her for? Was she instead a quietly vengeful one? The ambiguity is there for people to question.

While some roles were smaller, established actors like Geraldine Chaplin, Sian Philips, Richard E. Grant, Jonathan Pryce, Michael Gough, Norman Lloyd and Alexis Smith in her final film role made strong impressions. Out of the smaller roles, my standout was Miriam Margolyes as May and Ellen's grandmother, the cheerful grande dame Mrs. Mingott. This was also an early role for Sean Leonard Thomas, who plays the adult son of Newland and May. While I am not big on voiceovers, I thought the narration worked. It helps when you have a respected actress like Joanne Woodward be the voice guiding us through this world.

The Age of Innocence is very sumptuous in its production. Alongside its Oscar win for the costumes, the film also has a lush Elmer Bernstein score and grand production design, which were also Oscar-nominated. The film also has grand cinematography and excellent editing, particularly in the opening opera scene as the characters spy on others through their opera glasses.

Lush, grand, but with a deep heart within it, The Age of Innocence is a showcase for everyone involved in front and behind the camera.  

DECISION: A+