Martin Scorsese is one of America's best filmmakers. He's also one of its most limited. His intuitive feel for New York's Italian-American subculture is as hot and vivid as a couple of wise guys letting off steam in a Mafioso dive. Scorsese knows these people and he knows their language. He's the social poet of modern-day New York in all of its gritty, obscene glory.
So what the heck is he doing in the upper-class New York of the 1870s? That question is repeatedly provoked by his latest film, The Age of Innocence.
Based on the novel by Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence is an opulent and extremely leisurely tale of love lost, elusive happiness and life's major compromises. The film is highly stylized and great to look at. But it lacks warmth, and its manners are as stiff as the characters' period costumes.
Daniel Day-Lewis is Newland Archer, a respectable and socially prominent member of New York's early blue-blood society. He is engaged to Winona Ryder, the daughter of a family that's equally prominent in the social registry. Day-Lewis is eager to marry, but Ryder prefers to wait. It's not until half-way through the movie that she finally confides her private doubts about her beau's emotional commitment.
And no wonder she has doubts. The moment Day-Lewis spots Michelle Pfeiffer, he's smitten (though he's too well-bred to fully admit his passion). Pfeiffer is his fiancee's cousin. She's also married (her husband is one of those decadent European counts whose excessive behavior sent Pfeiffer scurrying back to the States) and the subject of much scandalous whispering herself.
The story's repressed emotions and psychological nuances are exquisitely expressed in the film's visual detail. Unfortunately, the performances in The Age of Innocence aren't nearly as vivid. Granted, the characters represent a restrained and fastidiously polite age, but they lack an underlying spark. It's as if Scorsese simply hasn't a clue as to what makes these folks tick. So he buries himself in the film's decor.
The director does succeed, however, in making some great technical advances in The Age of Innocence. The matte shots, optical dissolves and jump cuts in the editing are superb.
If only he were as adept at motivating his actors.
No comments:
Post a Comment