The film stars Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, Winona Ryder, and Miriam Margolyes, and was released by Columbia Pictures.

It tells the story of Newland Archer (Day-Lewis), a wealthy New York society attorney who finds himself caught between two women, the conformist May Welland (Ryder) and the unconventional Countess Ellen Olenska (Pfeiffer).

It received critical acclaim, winning the Academy Award for Best Costume Design, and being nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Ryder), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, and Best Art Direction.

In the 1870s, New York City is dominated by a community of old-money WASP families whose lives are guided by strict codes of conduct.

Archer is drawn to Ellen's unconventional views on New York society, which contrast with May's seeming passivity, lack of personality, and fondness for idle leisure.

Ironically, high society's unwritten rules have faded away, and Archer's son Ted is engaged to the daughter of Beaufort's mistress.

He reveals that he planned the trip so that Archer could meet Ellen again, explaining on her deathbed, May confessed that "when she asked you to, you gave up the thing you wanted most."

[4] Scorsese himself has a cameo as the "fussy bustling photographer who later takes the official wedding photographs",[5] while Day-Lewis' sister, Tamasin Day-Lewis, has a cameo admiring May's engagement ring[5]—a last minute addition after Scorsese’s then-partner, Illeana Douglas, had to dropout, when producer-director Frank Marshall insisted his cast be on-location throughout entire principal photography, on his sophomore feature film, Alive (1993).

The scenes set in the home of Mrs. Mingott were filmed in "The Castle", a fraternity house belonging to the Alpha Tau chapter of Pi Kappa Phi at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

The sequences' visual symphony of blooming roses and lace were to convey the submerged sensuality and hidden codes of the era.

[17] The bursts of color employed as a fade out were inspired by the films Black Narcissus (1947), by Michael Powell, and Rear Window (1954), by Alfred Hitchcock.

The site's consensus states: "Equal measures romantic and wistful, Martin Scorsese's elegant adaptation of The Age of Innocence is a triumphant exercise in both stylistic and thematic restraint.

[22] In The New York Times, Vincent Canby said, "Taking The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton's sad and elegantly funny novel about New York's highest society in the 1870s, Martin Scorsese has made a gorgeously uncharacteristic Scorsese film...The film is the work of one of America's handful of master craftsmen.

Not since Olivier in Wuthering Heights has an actor matched piercing intelligence with such imposing good looks and physical grace.

And, in front of the camera, performers Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer and Winona Ryder suffuse this saga of repressed longing and spiritual suffering with elegant authority....

Known primarily for modern street pictures, such as Taxi Driver and GoodFellas, Scorsese shows he can flex an entirely different set of muscles and still make a great movie.

"[27] Todd McCarthy of Variety said, "For sophisticated viewers with a taste for literary adaptations and visits to the past, there is a great deal here to savor....Day-Lewis cuts an impressive figure as Newland...

The two principal female roles are superbly filled.... Scorsese brings great energy to what could have been a very static story, although his style is more restrained and less elaborate than usual.

"[28] Rita Kempley, also of The Washington Post, wrote, "Perhaps it shouldn't come as such a grand surprise that he [Martin Scorsese] is as deft at exploring the nuances of Edwardian manners as he is the laws of modern-day machismo.

"[29] Time Out said, "The performances are excellent, while the director employs all the tools of his trade to bring his characters and situations vividly to life... Scorsese's most poignantly moving film.

[37] Elmer Bernstein was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or Television.

[38] The film score for The Age of Innocence was composed by Elmer Bernstein, who had previously collaborated with Scorsese on Cape Fear (1991).