Innocence

I'm way out if my league here (and quite politically incorrect) since this genre is new to me. Forty years after a break-up never fully explained, Andreas (Charles Tingwell) is searching for his long lost love. Claire's (Julia Blake) been living close by all along, in quiet desperation. Andreas " remembers your youth innocence your smile." and gives us the theme. But life is a killer, so young love between these elders might be short. This film examines issues of love, aging, marriage and death. Filmed sensitively and portrayed insightfully, this film is one for the select audience who cares (and wonders) what has (and might) happened to those long lost lovers. May yours be as well preserved as these.

Paul Cox's Innocence is an unconventional, often very poignant love story about an old man named Andreas (Charles Tingwell) who writes to his first love Claire (a simple yet complex Julia Blake) and the two meet again. Claire has had a husband John (Terry Norris) for a number of decades now, and yet by some powerful if inexplicable force they fall in love once again as they did when they were 16. However this affair comes as a shock to John, but the story unfolds as if it weren't trying to reach any total, formulaic conclusion; which is just one of the films many strong points.

The other strong points come from the terrific performances by Tingwell, Norris and especially Blake who act they're roles with a realism and heart you don't see often in love stories. And of course, Cox delivers fine direction and an even finer script to the mix. Only 2 flaws get in the way- things could've been explained a little better here and they're when it came to some of the reasoning and emotion, plus the ending was a downer. Otherwise, it's a quite worthwhile picture, especially for fans of Cox, or for anybody sick of seeing films up on the marqui with names like Glitter and Soul Survivors. Grade: Between A & A-

Writer, director Paul Cox's `Innocence' may be about senior-citizen love, but it really is about how we must be ready when love arrives or when it returns, no matter at what age. As a cautionary tale and a lyric expression of love's power, few current movies can match this film's quiet honesty.

At the same time, `Innocence' has enough aphorisms and platitudes about love and life to make it qualify for the `I am Sam/Majestic' sugar trophy. Heroine Claire's leaden comment, `Too much love is as bad as no love at all,' is one of the winners.

But then when she says to her elderly friend before their lovemaking, "If we're going to do this--let's do it like grownups. First, close the curtains. Then, close your eyes," I have to admit it made me consider that bedroom antics at any age are pretty goofy in the cold light of maturity. In this way, Cox has caught the humanity that crosses all age lines and doesn't need the excessive silent intercutting of numerous romantic reveries from the protagonists' youth.

If you see `Innocence,' you may never have to see another love story. The romance between these two almost 70 year olds is fraught with uncertainty, deception, longing, passion, and regret. It is honest about the choices we make and their consequences. It is hopeful about our ability to recoup our losses and begin again, even at life's end.

So, like our own lives and loves, the film is alternately sublime and ridiculous. View it if only to witness on film the first and last time you will see septuagenarians making love. Hey, they look just as silly as the rest of us.

As a woman of 'a certain age' I speak from experience. The sentimentality seemed to me to be excessive. I found the story to be plausible, and the cast superb; it was in the execution that Paul Cox revealed an idealistic approach to men and women in love (at any age). I swear I aged an entire year during this 90-minute experience. I found myself taking deep breaths, wanting to say "Move it along, Paul, give up the ponderosity, let's see the amazing vitality that a love affair injects into formerly perfunctory lives. (That, unfortunately, happened in only one scene ... at the home of friends.) The flashbacks to the young lovers seemed repetitious because there was no progression, no development of the characters Again, I wanted to say, "We get it, Paul, we get it, they were in love--and no different from any couple in love." The ending could have been so much more interesting if Mr. Cox had not, indeed, taken the easy way out. However, I salute the effort to depict us oldsters as something other than grumpy grannies/gramps or eccentric fools.

In these times of recovery from terrorist-caused disasters, as our country feels threatened with a kind of national paranoia, this lovely film brings its humanity to our torn psyches. It solves nothing...nor does it pretend to. The rare depiction of elderly lovers as well as the considerations of the relation of death to life in a non-maudlin fashion are to be applauded. Paul Cox has brought us a film to savor, rich with imagery, fine performances and thoughtful concepts. As with his splendid film "Lonely Hearts" the poignancy of relationship, and the need of the human spirit to be fulfilled through love and sexuality is dealt with sensitively and with a maturity of vision. I highly recommend this film to anyone, young or old, looking for more than sensationalism, special effects or a quick fix.