It is the story of wealthy attorney Newland Archer, who was engaged to social activist Mae Weland in the 1870s in New York. It seems that this engagement took place only because he loves Mai's cousin, a woman who has been separated from her husband for some time.
The movie seems a departure from Scorsese's turf of violence and lower class men, but Wharton's depiction of rigid milieu with its restrictive mores and emotional repression bears resemblance to Little Italy's male subculture.
It also shows that while tradition can devolve into a conformity that stifles compassion and love, acting in mere self-interest can ultimately be just as destructive.
Mr. Scorsese has made a big, intelligent movie that functions as if it were a window on a world he had just discovered, and about which he can't wait to spread the news.
Rolling Stone
July 22, 2006
Spurning Masterpiece Theatre twittiness, Scorsese cuts to the primal passions of Wharton's tale.
Lawrence Journal-World
May 27, 2005
A stylish but fairly forgettable Scorsese effort
Film4
February 01, 2010
Gorgeously shot, deceptively genteel period drama. Day-Lewis, Ryder and in particular Pfieffer give performances as polished as the silver and the result is slow, subtle but irresistibly powerful.
I don't know any of those [prior] versions, and I wonder how (which means I doubt that) they avoided the snare that Wharton unwittingly set for her adapters, the snare that, for all his gifts, caught Scorsese.