The Age of Innocence: Book vs. Movie

Whenever I read a classic I enjoy, I always look for a movie or TV adaptation. Screen adaptations of classics, I've found, help me picture the story better and appreciate it more deeply.

This was the case with Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence. 

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"Winner of the 1921 Pulitzer Prize, The Age of Innocence is Edith Wharton’s masterful portrait of desire and betrayal during the sumptuous Golden Age of Old New York, a time when society people 'dreaded scandal more than disease.' This is Newland Archer’s world as he prepares to marry the beautiful but conventional May Welland. But when the mysterious Countess Ellen Olenska returns to New York after a disastrous marriage, Archer falls deeply in love with her. Torn between duty and passion, Archer struggles to make a decision that will either courageously define his life—or mercilessly destroy it." (From Goodreads)

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I enjoyed the New York society setting, the characters, and the story itself. Most of the characters felt rather one-dimensional, but the ones who mattered (Newland Archer, Ellen Olenska, and May Archer née Welland) had depth and changed throughout the book. Archer and May reminded me of Andrei and Natasha from War and Peace–an older man who's rather jaded with society and his life in general is in a relationship with an innocent, much younger girl. Andrei, however, takes action on his feelings by joining the army (and he truly does love Natasha), whereas Archer never really breaks out of his rut and, while he is in love with Ellen, marries May and goes on to have a happy, fulfilled, faithful life with her. (If we're drawing comparisons between Archer/May and Andrei/Natasha, perhaps we could say that Archer's thing with Ellen is parallel to Natasha's thing with Anatole Karagin? Just kidding, I don't think they're similar at all.)

Source: https://fancaps.net/movies/Image.php?imageid=8601240

The movie did consolidate a few characters, which I thought was helpful, but they cut out Medora Mingott, Ellen's aunt who raised her, and I think they missed out on an opportunity to humorously portray a larger-than-life character there.

There were a couple little touches referencing the book throughout the movie, such as Ellen fastening her bracelet as she arrives (late) to Henry and Louisa van der Luyden's party, that I appreciated. However, I did not appreciate the voiceover. Voiceovers aren't always lazy storytelling, but in this case it was just a woman's voice (Joanne Woodward–I just looked it up) reading passages from the book, and I felt there were ways that exposition could have been worked in more seamlessly.

Source: https://fancaps.net/movies/Image.php?imageid=8601657

There were a few other interesting choices that didn't entirely land for me, mainly the weird, choppy cuts in some scenes and May speaking the contents of her telegram directly to the camera as Archer reads it.

Speaking of the telegram scene, I just have to say that Daniel Day-Lewis is the master of trying not to cry. I love his furious blinks as he's talking with Ellen right before the telegram comes. This is also the scene in which Ellen speaks the most beautiful line in both the book and the movie, and the one that sums up their relationship perfectly: "I can't love you unless I give you up."

Source: https://fancaps.net/movies/Image.php?imageid=8603111

Rewinding a bit, I thought that the scene in the Poltroon's house was really well done. In this scene, Archer asks Ellen what she was running away from and then closes his eyes, waiting for her to say that she was running away from him–but then he opens his eyes and sees Julius Beaufort coming up to the front door. The way this was portrayed in the movie, with Archer imagining Ellen coming up and putting her arms around him, helped me understand the scene better.

Source: https://fancaps.net/movies/Image.php?imageid=8602396

The last thing I want to note is that May is such an interesting character; the book/movie makes her out to be "blind"/naive, but she's actually very perceptive. She knows that Archer's feelings are elsewhere, and she tells Ellen she's sure she's pregnant even when she's not to get Ellen to leave. I think everyone kind of sells her short, and I love how the movie shows how genuinely happy Archer ended up being with her.

Source: https://fancaps.net/movies/Image.php?imageid=8602485

One thing that really bothered me about the movie, though, was that it switched May and Ellen's coloring. Meaning that in the book, May is blond while Ellen has dark hair, while in the movie, May is a brunette while Ellen is very fair. You can't have everything, I guess.

Have you read The Age of Innocence or seen the movie? If so, what did you think? Let's compare notes in the comments!