The Age of Innocence movie review- We live in a society

The hands, the glances, the breaths, the yearning, it's all so unbearably romantic. 

Director: Martin Scorsese 

Writer: Martin Scorsese, Jay Cocks, Edith Wharton

Cinematographer: Michael Ballhaus

Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, Winona Ryder, Richard E. Grant, Miriam Margolyes

Year: 1993

Set in 1870s New York, upper-class lawyer Newland Archer (the breathtaking Daniel Day-Lewis) is engaged to the young and sweet May Welland (the fantastic Winona Ryder). On the surface, this is the perfect match. However, when May's beautiful and enigmatic cousin Countess Ellen Olenska (the amazing Michelle Pfeiffer), who is estranged from her cruel husband, arrives in town, Newland begins to reconsider his engagement. He begins to question the difference between passion and love as he hopelessly and desperately pursues a relationship with Ellen, even though she is looked down upon and made to be an outcast by Archer's peers. 

As I gaze upon an opening montage of flowers, I am reminded, maybe quite comically, that this delicate and romantic film was crafted by the same hands that focus so dearly on blood-spilling violence and gang crime within the Mafia. But as the credits roll, I realise that The Age of Innocence has to be Scorsese's most violent film to date. Heartbreaking are the visuals and the script as you are lulled into the hazy world of 1870s upper-class society in the brick-built buildings of New York.  It has been said by many before, and will be said by many after that, "you always want something you cannot have", a heartbreaking phrase that echoes throughout the film within the glimmer of the sun against the water and in each snowflake that falls upon snow filled grounds of Scorsese's America. To love someone you are not supposed to be a harsher heartbreak, as two lovers are left to leave each other as the gossip will destroy them. Why live such a life of unhappiness with someone who you cannot devour so passionately as you may have done before with another? Scorsese reminds you that love is futile and eruptive, and the moment it blossoms, it must die, as everything in this world has an end. The Age of Innocence demands an audience like an opera, as heartbreak leaves the lovers wanting more, but the idle temptation of being cast aside by society only means that these lovers would struggle to love one another, and what if this love affair was only for passion? Must you risk it all for lust? Or stay safe in the stable arms of love? 

I never really understood why people were so in love with Daniel Day-Lewis until I watched this film. At that moment, he stood beside Winona, lent down and told her: "I want to kiss you" and then kissed her; it made me feel like throwing myself out of a fucking window. I seriously need to stop watching these romantic period dramas because I know no man in 2022 is going to devotedly love me the way Newland passionately loves Ellen. Running for 2 hours and 18 minutes, The Age of Innocence takes you on a journey of love, innocence, lust, passion, and finally, a resolution, not with a person, but with life itself. The main theme is a beautiful piece of orchestral classical music, with the soundtrack following both its lightness and darkness as the film progresses from spring through to winter. As the camera lingers on, following streets, carriages, burning flames of candles and passion, as the sweeping tracking shots fill the screen with conspicuous wealth and a world full of unimaginable wealth and love, underneath it all is a tremendous sadness. It's a seductive world, full of seductive people unaware of their exceptionality within society. It amazes me how Scorsese can make us feel sorry for a man who cheats on his fiance, a character that should be insufferable instead is turned into a tragic and foolish hero, who fails at every pathetic passionate scheme yet, in the end, is admirable in his refusal to be anything other than what he is. Who knew an affair could be so romantic and yet so heartbreaking? I mean, Daniel Day-Lewis can act! he savours up each moment upon the screen as the darkness seems to gravitate towards him as if he's some human magnet; my eyes just seemed to drown in him and his performance. As the violins swell, and the fire crackles whilst the light dashes across his sad eyes, it's within these moments you get absolutely lost in his performance, engulfed by his whining heartstrings as the camera slowly moves towards him. It should be illegal for him to be that hot in this film! Winona Ryder as May was just wonderful; she brings this innocence and youthful charm that balances out the aged passion of her on-screen counterparts, hiding her depth of sadness behind bright eyes and wide smiles. May is as light as a feather when the camera is directed towards her, a beacon of light within the dark winters of New York. Michelle Pfeiffer is absolutely breathtaking and enigmatic as she lonesomely wanders through conversations. She always says her lines as if she's out of breath, and although visually, I would not say that Ellen exudes the raw sex appeal Pfeiffer usually does in passionate roles, she does bring forward immense passion that I feel no other actor would have brought justice to the character. Ellen embodies a sexual freedom Newland so desires to have for himself and inserts herself perfectly into each passing season, a happy medium full of both light and darkness. Scorsese captures it all, the beauty and the isolation and the twinges of seduction; his world is a luscious prison that dissolves. 

I felt as if the film should have ended on more of an ambiguous note after Newland and May's honeymoon or when Ellen breaks it off with Newland, drawing the film out until we see May and Newlands children as adults and young Daniel-Day Lewis walking around as if he's an old man just made the film feel too long. We know by the end of the film he doesn't go to see Ellen even though he has the option to; he only wishes to stand and watch and hope she comes to the window. And yes, although it may not end happily ever after as the lovers are not reunited in their old age, I still felt like the film was too neatly wrapped up in a little red bow. I want to be left wanting more, just like the lovers; I don't want time to pass and to heal, I want to be left absolutely heartbroken as Newland sits in his office alone, reading the letter as the voiceover details his vivid unhappiness. That's really the only part of the film I find much fault in; if the film had ended 20 minutes or even 40 minutes earlier, I think it would have had much more of an impact on me. By the end, I felt flat, ironed out like a dress shirt, unsure of how to feel as the sadness had washed over me and disappeared. Maybe that was the intention. Maybe that's what Scorsese wants you to feel, unsure. Unsure of the life that Newland has led and the love he has gained and lost along the way, maybe life doesn't always end in complete sadness, but maybe in the vagueness of it instead.  

In the end, The Age of Innocence has left me wanting Daniel Day-Lewis to unbutton me like a glove. I need me someone like Daniel Day-Lewis (preferably Daniel Day-Lewis himself). The Age of Innocence is beautiful, a true melancholic display of seduction and heartbreak in a time where letters were written under candlelight and kisses were had between the veil of midnight and the curtains of a carriage. Sometimes I get movie cravings; I'll just be like, "I need to watch The Age of Innocence RIGHT NOW."

Rating: 4/5 

Favourite quotes: 

"And she remained in his memory simply as the most plaintive and poignant of a line of ghosts." 

"The real loneliness is living among all these kind people who only asks you to pretend." 

"You gave me my first glimpse of a real life. Then you asked me to go on with the false one. No one can endure that." 

"I can't have happiness made out of a wrong to someone else."