This is Marty’s best and one of the best novel adaptations ever put to film. The strictures and casual cruelties of the 19th century were never as pronounced in the New World as in the Old (as Beaufort’s redemption demonstrates), but that doesn’t make Newland Archer’s sacrifice any less painful or honorable.
And yet - his consolation prize is a satisfied life, filled with children he loves. It is real and it is true and Mae understands this better than anyone else in the film. She is able to make her perfect world by sheer force of her goodness.
The Countess can never turn around. Our memories of those sun dappled waves and past loves are fantastical and pure. But real?
Only for the poets. And even then.