90
Metascore
35 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertI have seen love scenes in which naked bodies thrash in sweaty passion, but I have rarely seen them more passionate than in this movie, where everyone is wrapped in layers of Victorian repression.
- 100San Francisco ChroniclePeter StackSan Francisco ChroniclePeter StackBest “performances,'' however, are given by the movie's almost agonizingly beautiful historical settings -- luxurious households, rich architecture, furnishings, ornaments, draperies, fineries and such are often more captivating than the hushed tones of the lovers. [17 Sept 1993, Daily Notebook, p.C1]
- 100The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenThe Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenIt comes eerily close to duplicating the experience of reading while, at the same time, remaining very much a motion picture. That's a rare, perhaps even unprecedented, achievement.
- 100Chicago TribuneMichael WilmingtonChicago TribuneMichael WilmingtonA great, velvety, beautiful anachronism. It's a movie almost drunk on romance, literature and cinema, a splendid period picture that keeps rashly breaking rules and boundaries [17 Sept 1993, Friday, p.A]
- 100Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranLos Angeles TimesKenneth TuranA beautifully done adaptation of the novel, polished, elegant and completely cinematic. It is also a bit distant, a film that doesn't wear its feelings on its sleeve, but given the effects it's after, that would be counterproductive. [17 Sept 1993, Calendar, p.F-1]
- 88Rolling StonePeter TraversRolling StonePeter TraversDay-Lewis is smashing as the man caught between his emotions and the social ethic. Not since Olivier in "Wuthering Heights" has an actor matched piercing intelligence with such imposing good looks and physical grace.
- 83Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanUp through its first half, The Age of Innocence is a masterfully orchestrated tale of romantic yearning.
- 70VarietyTodd McCarthyVarietyTodd McCarthyScorsese has met most of the challenges inherent in tackling such a formidable period piece, but the material remains cloaked by the very propriety, stiff manners and emotional starchiness the picture delineates in such copious detail.
- 50Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovAustin ChronicleMarc SavlovA bore... The film leaves you with the feeling, once again, of having enjoyed a lovely meal fit for royalty only to discover, too late, that the fruit was made of wax and the roast was little more than a Styrofoam mock-up.
- 50Chicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumChicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumAs beautifully mounted as this production is, Scorsese has a way of letting the decor take over, so that Wharton's tale of societal constraints comes through only in fits and starts. But it's a noble failure.