Moved from one Scorcese oddity the other night (The Color of Money), to another yesterday evening with this period piece. You can still see what drew him to the material - New York of the 1870s, betrayals and intrigue - almost a gentrified version of Goodfellas, where instead of getting 'wacked' you become a social outcast, excluded from invitations, gossiped about in smoking rooms, if you dare cross the line of honor and expected behavior. The opening 'ballroom' scene even reminded me a bit of the 'barroom introduction scene' in Goodfellas where the camera insinuates itself among the guests giving you little snippets of information about various characters.
Newland (Daniel Day-Lewis) is such a wishy washy character to be put in the role of doomed lover, he secretly disapproves of the stiff conformity of his peers, yet never dares break from it completely, he longs for forbidden romance, yet can barely bring himself to make even the slightest moves towards obtaining it.
The movie is beautiful to look at, quite often emulating the painting styles of the day, most of the women look like Sargent paintings, there are some interesting filmic devices throughout, the 'dark sillouettes' that creep in occassionally to isolate bits of important action or dialog, interesting fades to pure color - and is paced in such a way as to seem like a product of a generation completely out of pace with our own (which may make for tedious viewing for some). Everyone in the movie is so stiff, cautious and careful of appearances, it is a wonder that the storyline moves forward at all.