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The Age of Innocence by Stephen Farber Martin Scorsese's adaptation of The Age of Innocence gets under your skin and stays there, despite some glaring flaws. Edith Wharton's novel tells the story of a proper New York attorney, Newland Archer (Daniel Day-Lewis), and a woman with a slightly scandalous past (Michelle Pfeiffer), who fall in love but can't buck the stuffy social arbiters who conspire to keep them apart. Wharton's story may prove baffling to contemporary audiences. The obstacles to the romance--the stigma of divorce, the scandal surrounding adultery--aren't easy to buy into today. But the poignant drama that Wharton imagined transcends these specific social trappings. Doubts and fears continue to inhibit people even in more liberated times; opportunities are missed because of a fatal failure of nerve, on mean streets a long way from the elegant 19th century salons that Wharton described. The intelligent script by Jay Cocks and Scorsese wisely retains generous doses of Wharton's witty narration, which is beautifully read by Joanne Woodward. Scorsese's visual style is lush and enveloping. His active camera draws us into this sumptuously appointed world and makes it so vivid and inviting that we can almost understand Newland's reluctance to defy convention and turn his back on this safe haven. Daniel Day-Lewis's superb performance also helps us to enter Newland's mind and experience the ambivalence that leaves him tragically paralyzed. Winona Ryder achieves surprising force as Newland's fiancee, and the supporting cast--Alec McCowen, Sian Phillips, Geraldine Chaplin, and especially Miriam Margolyes as the corpulent doyenne of New York society--is exemplary. PAGE 1 | 2 |
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But Michelle Pfeiffer's performance is ruinous. She's been wonderful in other films, so her failure here is something of a surprise. First of all, she doesn't look as ravishing as she needs to; her hairdresser should be shot. And her line readings have no authority. She comes across as a giddy, silly, common American girl; she conveys none of the mystery or gravity or boldness that the part requires. Scorsese's film frequently recalls Welles's The Magnificent Ambersons--in its swirling camera movements, its extensive narration, its ironic yet nostalgic evocation of a vanished aristocratic world, and in its chronicle of a grand love thwarted by social convention. But The Magnificent Ambersons had in Dolores Costello an actress with the regal beauty to give the unconsummated love story a heartbreaking pathos. Largely because of Pfeiffer's inadequacy, The Age of Innocence doesn't reach the tragic intensity of Welles's masterpiece. Still, in a time of canned uplift, even a film that touches on the melancholy themes of The Magnificent Ambersons deserves a measure of gratitude and respect. What did you think of this movie? Sound off in the Movie Forum. PAGE 1 | 2 |
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