10 Brilliant Films That Were Intentionally Boring

Directed by Martin Scorsese, The Age Of Innocence appeared as a radical departure from the horrors that filled the auteur's earlier work like Goodfellas and Cape Fear. With that, it's easy enough to label the film uninteresting - with guns and gangsters being replaced by ballroom dancing and sentimental love letters.

Based on Edith Wharton's 1920 novel of the same name, the film follows Newland Archer (played by Daniel Day-Lewis), a lawyer who abides by the societal customs that govern New York's wealthiest. During this time, marriages are like treaties between nations, their purpose not merely to cement romance or produce children, but to provide for the orderly transmission of wealth between the generations. Anything that threatens this sedate process is hated. Archer ultimately falls in love with the cousin of his fiancé and, as you can imagine, things get complicated.

The Age Of Innocence is actually a major work from Scorsese. The characters are as cutthroat as any wiseguy. Manners and gossip are the weapons on display here. The damage they inflict will haunt the film's protagonist and the viewer for quite some time.