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The Age of Innocence (1993)

Rate: 2
Viewed: 8/08

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8/08: Martin Scorsese should stick to what he does the best: making Robert De Niro gangster pictures.

The Age of Innocence is an unbelievably poor film that I could've been fooled thinking Brian De Palma did the film instead. Mainly, it's the extravagant, lavish backgrounds and interior pieces that take away my attention while I'm tortured by the failed chemistry among poorly developed characters and tiresome plot which has been done countless times.

Having done better in A Room with a View, Daniel Day-Lewis' talent is wasted by working with two of the most terrible actresses in Hollywood: Michelle Pfeiffer and Winona Ryder. These two cannot act their way out of a piss-soaked paper bag. What passion is there between Newland Archer and Ellen Olenska? No, hand and foot fetishes don't constitute it. Although her character's name sounds Transylvanian, Michelle Pfeiffer is decidedly American in looks.

I like to think of The Age of Innocence as an excuse to re-enact A Sunday Afternoon on the Island at La Grande Jatte which was actually painted in Paris, not New York City as they want me to believe. What happens much of the time is the back-and-forth between different relationships against the lush cinematography: Archer and Ellen, Archer and May, and an occasional visit to the pretentious elderly "spiritual" advisor.

Truth be told, I started the film during the first week of August but didn't finish it until a month later because it was so uninteresting and slow. Many times, I had been confused while trying to keep track of the characters' names because I didn't know who's who. The ending says it all: a pure waste of time. If I want to read a novel, I'll read one, and if I want to watch a movie, I'll watch one. But The Age of Innocence is like reading a book.

All in all, The Age of Innocence should be called The Age of Snobbery in Martin Scorsese's New York.