You wouldn't expect a film about tight-laced New York Social Register wealthy in the 1870's to have scenes of sexual tension so tight you can hear the wires twanging, but that's "Age of Innocence." While no film can top the novel, which is one of my top ten favorite books, Scorsese's thirty year old film is a masterpiece and catches the essence of the film, if not the nuances.Newland Archer is poised to marry the young and innocent May Welland. She is fond of athletics, resistant to the art and culture that is part of Newland's very soul and seems a blank slate and yet--possesses feminine intution and wiles beyond her experience. Meanwhile her cousin Ellen, who is badly married to a dissolute Polish count, comes home to New York to escape the degradation of her life (her husband fills the house amd cavorts with loose women (the kind whose label starts with "wh") and expects the Countess to sit at the head of the dining table looking on as if it's a company of European royalty. And according to the marriage laws of the time, he has her wealth in his control and spends it as he wishes.Newland proposes to May, who is all for the traditional 2 year engagement. Meanwhile, he meets Ellen and a hot fire is kindled in him. Then the plot twists unfold and he is called upon by the family and New York's society leaders to dissuade her from freeing herself from the loathesome husband. Meanwhile, the innocent May manages to push Newland to the brink of decision: convention and "decency" as dictated by New York Elite...or follow his innermost desires.Newland is a classic flawed hero in the truest Greek sense (his very nature defeats him.) Ironically, his unconsummated love affair with Ellen is assumed to be going on in full and flagrant fury undercover, by the hypcritical "moral" social set. Because nearly all the men have side chicks---as long as no one admits it.The scenes where Newland and Ellen come close, oh so close, to sealing their love are amazing in the sexual tension-- Scorsese directs a cast that couldn't be any more perfect: Daniel Day-Lewis, who somehow can act with just his eyes and jaw, Michelle Pfeiffer, always a joy and never overplays, and a supporting cast that vied for Academy Award nominations (Winona Ryder as May, who got the nomination, and the marvelous Miriam Margolyes as Mrs Manson Mingott the somewhat unconventional matriarch of the families who didn't but maybe should have.)Scorsese employs a lot of narration instead of dialog (a risky choice that works) and dark scenes in limited colors of red, black and white manages to re-create the novel closely and yet make a work of art on its own. If you're not crying in at least three of the scenes, you're tougher stuff than me.