Rating: 
Summary: Absolutely stunning!
Review: Martin Scorsese was an unlikely choice indeed to direct this piece, but what a wonderful job he did! It is a visual masterpiece and very, very true to its time (1870s upper New York). I still have yet to see the entire movie all in one sitting, but I've seen it in pieces several times. The opera and formal dinner parties and drawing room tensions are all beautifully filmed, as well as scripted. I've yet to find the time to read Edith Wharton's novel but the film seems true enough. A young man, Newland Archer (an exquisite Daniel-Day Lewis) is engaged to a seemingly naive and truly sweet-tempered woman (Winona Ryder). He is distracted by her lovely cousin, Countess Ellen Olenska (Michelle Pfeiffer). It seems Newland has been in love with Ellen all along, but held his tongue as she went off to Europe to marry a rich count of Poland. Now she's back in New York, quietly though assertively calling for a divorce. She is the bane of society, though everyone is too polite to come out and say it. Newland pursues a dialogue with Ellen and wants more from her, but Ellen knows what's best for her admirer. She finally tells him once and for all that she won't have him. This is of course after he's married May. May's manipulative qualities don't really surface til the end of the movie, but they are there. The last thirty or so minutes detail Newland's married life. We watch his children grow and marry the children of his collegues. The last character to be introduced is Ted (Robert Sean Leonard), whose role was too small for me (I'm a big fan of RSL). However, besides the beautiful cinematography, the best thing to explore is polite New York society and how vicious it truly is. 'The Age of Innocence' is one of my favorite movies because of its truth, its dialogue, and its color.
Rating: 
Summary: Well made romance drama.
Review: When a man (Oscar-Winner:Daniel Day Lewis) has fall in love with a beautiful strong woman (Michelle Pfeiffer), while he engaged with a luminous young woman (Winona Ryder in a Oscar Nominated role), who is his formidale fiancee. Directed by Martin Scorsese (The Last Tempation of Christ) seems to be unusual choice for directing this flawed but unique film. This has a great supporting cast including:Geraldine Chaplin, Alec McCowen, Richard E. Grant, Mary Beth Hurt, Staurt Wilson, Micheal Gough, Miriam Margolyes, Alexis Smith, Jonathan Pryce, Robert Sean Leonard and Norman Lloyd. This film is narrated by Joanne Woodward. The Problem with the film is slow moving, at times very weak, very hard to care about these characters in a emotional level but fine performances by Lewis, Pfeiffer and Ryder makes this one watchable. Oscar Nominated for Best Art Direction, Best Music Score and Best Apated Screenplay. Oscar Winner for Best Costumes. Fans of Martin Scorsese might love this and others think this is Scorsese`s Oddest Film. Super 35. Grade:B+.
Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece
Review: I can't believe that no one has reviewed this film. Everything about it is magnificent - the story, directing, cinematography, acting, sound. Scorsese is America's best director, and this may be his best film. Truly a masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: Lavish, Sumptuous and very much a Scorese picture.
Review: Yes it's frilly, filled with lace and stills could pass for photo spreads in Home & Garden. Yet even without Pesci, DeNiro, or foul language, 'The Age of Innocence,' at it's core is quintessential Scorsese. The key thematic is power, it's related hierarchy and about those who wield and fall to it - only this time instead of exercising power through gunplay and violence it is dispensed through mannerism and whispered subterfuge. Scenes with Mrs. Mingott interacting with her friends and family come off reminiscent of Paul Sorvino's character in 'Goodfellas.' All of Scorsese's visual trademarks are also intact with some great tracking shots and loads of loads of rich mise-en-scene. There's so much visual eye candy to take in, in terms of production and art design that multiple viewings are a must. From a technical standpoint this DVD is a treat and those lucky enough to have a proper TV connected to their DVD players through component cables will truly enjoy the rich, sumputous colors in this most excellent transfer.
Rating:
Summary: A small masterpiece of smoldering unrequited passion
Review: This 1993 film, directed by Martin Scorsese, brings the Edith Wharton novel to life. Here it is -- all the social comment and smoldering unrequited passions originally intended by the author. And now it's in living color with academy award winning costume design reflecting New York society in the 1870s. Daniel-Day Lewis is cast as Newland Archer, the upper class young man in conflict between social convention and desire. Michelle Pfieffer plays the Countess Ellen Olenska, who has already defied convention by marrying a European and is further defying convention by leaving her husband and returning to New York. However, in spite of his attraction to the countess, Newland Archer marries the beautiful but seemingly simple May Welland, played by Wynona Ryder, whose outstanding performance won her an academy award nomination. The film is woven together by the excellent off-screen narration by Joanne Woodward, reading excerpts from the book describing the nuances of social behavior and unspoken thoughts of the characters. The entire package comes across as a small masterpiece. I loved the book, but there is nothing like actually seeing the ballrooms, the gowns, the dinnerware and the food. There is nothing like seeing how very subtle gestures of a glance, a raised eyebrow or a change in tone of voice can have so much meaning. And there is one scene in which Newland Archer struggles with the buttons of the Countess's glove that captures an erotic sensuality in a very special way. However, a book can be read over many days or weeks. It can be put down and thought about, the characters carried in the mind's eyes for a while. The subtleties and nuances have time to live with the reader. A film, however, must be watched all at once. And watching subtleties and nuances for a full 133 minutes can tend to be a bit boring. But film is film and a book is a book. It is not fair to judge them against each other. So keeping that in mind, I give this video an extremely high recommendation.
Rating:
Summary: Beautifully crafted adaptation!
Review: Director Martin Scorsese has stepped outside his usual genre and created a rich and faithful adaptation of Edith Wharton's novel of the same name. This film is truly a feast for the eyes, creating a visual world that perfectly reveals the society in which it is set. More importantly, the screenplay draws us into a world where emotion and its expression are defined by the rules of class. Subtlety and depth are keywords for the story in this film, and the actors compliment the presentation by giving well rounded, natural, and believable performances. Not really a film about romance, it is better to define this as a story of the outside pressures and expectations of those around the main characters (Newland Archer played by Daniel Day-Lewis, and Countess Ellen Olenska played by Michelle Pfeiffer). Their affair, denied to them by their friends and relatives, is a catalyst for our glimpse into opportunities lost, and life long bitter-sweet memories made.
This is a film not to be missed; a quiet, yet very deeply emotional and memorable movie.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful!
Review: This is quite possibly one of the most visually stunning period pieces ever filmed. From the gorgeous opening credits to the final, perfectly-composed shot, it is an aesthetic feast for any fan of the genre. "The Age Of Innocence" is one of my personal favorites. The film stays remarkably true to the Wharton novel, fleshing out details and bringing the permeating emotion and atmosphere to life with exquisite cinematography, directing, and acting. Michelle Pfeiffer is superb as the free-spirited but (unknowingly) scandalous Ellen Olenska, and Daniel Day-Lewis provides a fine complement as Newland Archer (though I'd hesitate to call it his best work--he comes across as rather spiritless at times--that, and Pfeiffer steals the screen every shot she's in). Winona Ryder is somewhat forgettable next to Pfeiffer, but this could be considered in keeping with their characters. However. "The Age Of Innocence", in the tradition of character-driven period pieces, does move at a slower pace and relies on subtext and subtleties (which the acting and direction exemplify well), which many people find boring. And at nearly two and a half hours, there isn't much action to sustain someone looking for an "escape" movie--unless, of course, you're escaping to the lush but restrained world of Old New York. Also, since this film is such a departure from other Scorsese pictures, fans of his violent urban dramas might be a little surprised. However, if you've got some time you can dedicate to watching this aesthetically gratifying portrait of desire and sacrifice (and manipulation, how can we forget that?), I highly recommend you pick it up.
Rating:
Summary: A remembered film.
Review: In THE AGE OF INNOCENCE where monogamy is highly regarded in upscale society, divorce is needless to say an intolerable embarassing resort to broken marriage. But there are few who dared to determine it and make their own destiny, thus a story of love revolution or so called betrayal is told. This is an immensely sentimental film casting some of the best character-portraying screen performers at that time. The younger Daniel Day-Lewis with masculine jaw lines and features is the clear choice for the perfectly chivalrous yet fragile aristocrat gentleman Newland Archer. His instant choice of wife, the forever decently sweet and optimistic May Welland is played by no one else but the well known innocent ageless princess-like Winona Ryder. While May's bold, flirtatious cousin Countess Olenska is forbidden siren Michelle Pfeiffer, blonde with every curl desirable. Pay attention to many details of the beautiful 19th century New York backdrop setting to the very end of the film. And the stunning head titles design, a slowly racing work of blossoming roses.
Rating:
Summary: Mean Streets
Review: In THE AGE OF INNOCENCE, Martin Scorsese has abandoned his
oft-tread mileu, the mean streets of present-day New York, for a period and setting that some have speculated would be more appropriate subject matter for a Merchant-Ivory film.
But New York is New York and Mr. Scorsese seems as mesmerized by the New York of the 19th Century as he is by the New York of the 20th. Edith Wharton's dry, satiric prose is given an erotic bloom, bursting blossoms and vivid colors splashing across the
screen with an energetic immediacy that Mr. Scorsese usually reserves for graphic bloodletting. The struggle of Newland Archer, as played by Daniel Day-Lewis, between a boundless liberalism and the strict, repressive society around him is present in this fine actor's every gesture. To contrast his performance here with his wild, ferocious work in Scorsese's GANGS OF NEW YORK is to bear witness to an almost absurd level of versatility. Winona Ryder is somewhat miscast but conveys ample complexity. It is Michelle Pfeiffer's radiant performance that sets the picture ablaze, though. You want to drown in her eyes, even as the world is crushing her with every spin.
Rating:
Summary: Manners, Morals, Modesty, Mores---& Misery.
Review: Martin Scorsese's adaptation of Edith Wharton's exquisite tragedy of manners "The Age of Innocence" is a lush, meticulously staged, heartbreakingly gorgeous but hideously painful experience to watch: it is a tale of two young people, lured away from societal restraint and social decency by Passion, ensaring themselves in a Death Trap, one that will claim their lives, reputations, and souls. Watching "The Age of Innocence" is like watching some glorious rare bird, entrapped in a gilded, gem-studded cage, fight its way to freedom---even though the bars of the cage bristle with diamond shards and daggers. We know the bird is doomed; we know the wages of Passion is Death. We watch anyway, transfixed. Published in the 1920's, Edith Wharton's "Age of Innocence" was a scrupulous study of a society that had already been obliterated by a rapidly changing, far less 'innocent' continental Republic. In the novel and the movie, we are ensconced in unspoken yet binding social contrivances of New York of the 1870's, and quickly introduced to a bizarre menage a trois of striking characters: Newland Archer (played to the nuanced, agonized hilt by Daniel Day Lewis), a young and bold attorney, comfortably settled in New York society yet not a leading light; May Welland (played all sweetness and light---and cunning---by an effective Winona Ryder), born into a solid family, a blithe spirit projecting innocence, and Newland's fiancee; and the Countess Ellen Olenska (played by Michelle Pfeifer, in a role tailor-made for her), May's cousin, a New Yorker ensnared in a marriage of convenience to a disreputable European count of dissolute habits and degenerate nature. Archer, initially suspicious and disapproving of the unconvential and slightly disreputable Countess Olenska, succumbs quickly to her charms and is smitten; passion unfolds; disaster, precictably, follows. This intricately crafted, meticulously guilded Age of Innocence is made innocent, of course, by its merciless social strictures, its severe, sere social codes. Scorsese introduces us to this beautiful, fragile, wickedly punishing bell jar of social mores and etiquette, delves deep into its evanescent detail, its galleries of paintings and tapestries, its sitting rooms of studied gentlemen cutting and lighthing their cigars, its panoply of dinner plates and intricately crafted repasts. "The Age of Innocence" follows the excruciatingly painful, totally surreptious battle waged between Olenska and her would-be lover Newland Archer versus Decent Society. Scorsese has a deft, steady hand here: the visions of 1870's New York high society are so clear, so rich, so lush, so vibrant that they bring tears to your eyes; kudos should go to Scorcese's faithful German cinematographer Michael Ballhaus ("Goodfellas", "Gangs of New York"), who also produced the riveting lushness of Coppola's "Bram Stoker's Dracula"---small wonder "Age of Innocence" resembles 'Dracula' in atmosphere, richness, and ambience. But whereas Coppola's bloodsuckers drank the blood of their unwitting prey, Scorsese's vampires feast on the reputation and integrity of their fallen victims. This is a meticulously balanced society in which social regard and worth is measured in thank-you notes and milliseconds; it is an artificial construct, perfectly presented by Scorsese, which is as unbearably, unworkably fragile as it is judgmental. The acting here is uniformly solid: Daniel Day-Lewis is note-perfect as the conflicted Archer, Pfeifer woefully diplomatic as the frustrated Olenska, Ryder confident in her role as a latter-day Machiavelli on the Hudson, all smiles and naive charm. Backing up the leads is a veritable host of veteran actors, including Richard Grant as the sneering Larry Lefferts, Miriam Margolyes as a shrewd but effusive Mrs. Mingott, the impeccable Stuart Wilson as the mustachio-twirling "villain" Julius Beaufort (an engine of destruction for this 'age of innocence'), and a besieged Mary Beth Hurt as Beaufort's long-suffering wife. As painful as first love, as acute as the death of a beloved friend, "The Age of Innocence" is a breathtaking, living, breathing work of art. But the casual viewer, unarmed for its force, should beware: here be Dragons.
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