Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of Edith Wharton’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel,
The Age of Innocence, has not really received its due praise. Perhaps because at the time it seemed such a departure for the director of quintessential New York stories of Italian Americans, often involved in crime. Now that 17 years have passed and Scorsese has gone on to create a body of work with much broader settings and themes (
Kundun,
The Aviator,
Shutter Island), it’s fair to say there is little unusual about seeing it as very much a Martin Scorsese Picture.
Newland Archer (Daniel Day-Lewis) is one in a long line of Scorsese male protagonists trying to escape from the clutches of a world not of his own choosing. Consider Charlie in
Mean Streets coming to terms with his lack of faith; Travis Bickle trapped in a sewer of crime; Jesus of Nazareth wrestling with the forces pushing him; Teddy Daniels in
Shutter Island a prisoner of his own psychosis.
