Starring: Michelle Pfeiffer, Daniel Day-Lewis, Winona Ryder, Miriam Margoyles
Director: Martin Scorsese
Sometimes it really blows my mind how diverse Martin Scorsese is as a director. From The Aviator to Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, he seems to be able to take on anything.
Here, he directs an Edith Wharton adaptation set in the upper echelons of New York’s elite in the nineteenth century. In a time when the the ruin of reputation was disastrous and status was everything, social rules were very strict. Newland Archer (Day-Lewis) is set to marry respectable May (Ryder) who is everything a young society woman should be. Then he meets her cousin, Ellen (Pfeiffer) who is both stunningly beautiful and sharp witted, and in the process of separating from her abusive husband. They soon start to fall in love, but with her being still married and him promised to her cousin, they can’t find a way to be together. Passions run high as Archer tries to speed up his marriage and his fiance suspects another woman might be the reason why.
All three in the triangle are beautifully realised characters. May is sweet, young and nice, where Ellen is richly beautiful, sensual, passionate and skewers the conventions of the society she finds herself in. Archer is a man of principle, and he tries to do the right thing morally and socially, but he is deeply in love with someone who is not his fiance. All of them are nice people, you like them, and that makes it all the harder to watch them breaking each others hearts and be pushed around by the social rules.
It feels like these kind of lavish period films were so popular in the 90’s, with their attention to historical detail and costume, as well as the exploration of passions simmering under the surface of outward social convention. I like the way this one covers a long period of time, from the meeting and early engagement of May and Archer, through the lives and fortunes of her family, to their marriage and the trials that Ellen must face as a woman tied to a cruel husband and an outcast from society for being a separated wife, all the way through to the eventual outcome of the whole story. It’s a touching film, there are some really lovable characters here, and you want them to be happy, but in this triangle, not everyone can be. The struggle between doing what’s right, what’s expected and what your heart longs for are all explored here, with a gentle voiceover guiding you through.
It’s a lovely film, from a masterful director, and it was lovely to sink into this one and enjoy the ball rooms and drawing rooms of the New York social set, the clothes, and of course, the romance.
See It If: you love old school costume drama and romance, this one is quite lavish and bittersweet.
I tried watching this with my young nieces, hoping for something in the same league as the better Jane Austen adaptations. After about 15 minutes, the three of us decided to call it quits. The seemingly never ending interruptions of the narrator to tell us the names of characters and what their quirks were and their status in society really took us out of the story.
I replaced the movie with “Sense And Sensibility” (the Emma Thompson version). It was good, but not as good as the 3 hour BBC version.
— M
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Yeah, it’s a different film than usual period adaptations for sure.
I like that version of Sense and Sensibility. It’s good.
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Michelle Pfeiffer is the bomb. Love this film and her in Witches of East Wick hahaha
https://kerielaine.com
Keri Elaine
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Isn’t she awesome?? I love Witches of Eastwick too. ❤️
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This might come as a true shock, but I am not a huge Scorsese fan. I’m not denying that he isn’t a genius, but his movies just never really did much for me. There are of course exceptions: Shutter Island is one for that matter. I haven’t seen this one though, and after reading this I might give it a try. As usual, wonderful review 😀
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Maybe you’ll like this one because it’s not classic Scorsese? I know what you mean though, I’m not a huge fan of Kubrick or Tarantino.
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I love Martin Scorsese, never watched this film though but i will!!! Nice review 😻
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He’s so diverse as a director, it’s crazy! Hope you like this film. ❤️
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