Writer-director-star Dyan Cannon has just as much vitality and zest as any young starlet working today, and the wisdom she's acquired through the years is apparent in her softer, more pensive moments--an added plus. Yet in her autobiographical drama, "The End of Innocence", Cannon the writer never gets at the root of the central character's problem (doing things to please other people). Even though Cannon as an actress is still attractive, the woman she's playing here takes no shape; she's a bobble head doll. Personal projects can swing either way (remarkably reckless or too bland and safe), and I would have to say Cannon, at some point along in her journey, hedged her bets and decided to play it safe. "The End of Innocence" (terrible title!) is a thinly-structured film about one woman's strength through independence, but Cannon doesn't need to apologize to anyone for being herself, nor for having faults or for not always being a saint. Her sense of nostalgia in the flashback bits is fun and well-meaning, but here is where she gives the narrative her only passion. The modern-day scenes have no drive--there doesn't seem to be a script to work from--and the quick cuts and tricks cannot camouflage the fact the material just wasn't strong enough. One likes (or wants to like) Cannon right off the mark, but she attempts to submerge her own personality with this material. Wistful is fine, frazzled is better, but a benumbed Dyan Cannon is an automatic anticlimax. *1/2 from ****
