Innocence: Movie Review (2008)

Written and directed by Paul Cox. 94 minutes. No MPAA rating.

Paul Cox's "Innocence" follows the ramifications of a love triangle that blossoms between a 70-year-old widower, the woman he loved 50 years before and now finds himself in love with again, and the woman's husband, a self-absorbed curmudgeon suddenly faced with losing his wife of 44 years just when he needs her most.

Weak hearts, white hair, bad knees and cancer abound in this film, but so do passion, betrayal, sex and lust.

The movie, which the Dutch-born, Australian-raised Cox also wrote, is essentially 94 minutes of nose-thumbing at Hollywood, a defiant film from the director of “Vincent,” “Lonely Hearts,” “Man of Flowers” and “A Woman’s Tale” that takes Hollywood's treasured 18-36 demographic and feeds it a much-needed dose of reality.

Beautifully shot and acted, the movie explores what it means to live and to love at the end of one's life. Its occasional heavy-handed philosophizing, melodramatic dialogue and contrivances undermine its intent, but only slightly. Cox has such keen insights into aging, relationships and first love, "Innocence" consistently rises above its flaws.

The film stars Charles Tingwell as Andreas, a widower of 30 years who’s startled to learn that Claire (Julia Blake), his teenage love from Belgium five decades ago, is now living close by in Adelaide, Australia.

Swiftly skirting that little convenience, the story marches forward. Andreas sends Claire a letter, they meet for dinner--and fall hard for each other all over again. After an evening of lovemaking at Andreas' home, they decide they should never have parted and must be together now.

Of course it’s not that simple, but Cox and his characters know that. Claire's husband, John (Blake’s real-life huband, Terry Norris), is so incredulous when he learns the news, he first believes Claire is joking. “Love at her age,” he says to their son, David (Robert Menzies). “It’s ridiculous.”

But as everyone soon learns, Claire is a woman coming fully into her own. At nearly 70, she’s consumed with love for Andreas and, perhaps for the first time in her life, also for herself. Her new-found inner-strength is powerful and intoxicating--something John’s sudden attentiveness might not be able to match, no matter how hard he tries.

Grade: B+