Susan Granger's review of "INNOCENCE" (Fireworks Pictures/Cinemavault Releasing)
An adult love story is unusual - a poignant, engaging, romantically poetic one is unique. And that describes "Innocence, " Australian writer/director Paul Cox's tale of love rediscovered. Charles Tingwell ("The Dish") and Julia Blake ("Travelling North") play Andreas and Claire, ill-fated teenage lovers who were separated in post-W.W.II Belgium when his father disapproved of their relationship. Now a retired music teacher and church organist, a widower with a grown daughter, Andreas proposes a date for lunch in a letter to Claire, who has endured an emotionally sterile marriage and has a grown son. When they meet, memories come flooding back as they discover feelings that have been dormant for 50 years. Tenderly, the elderly couple embark on a gentle but intense affair, transcending time and place. Declaring they're too old to lie, they don't attempt to hide. In fact, Claire recklessly tells her puzzled husband (Terry Norris) whose incredulity soon erupts into jealousy, followed by desperation.
Adeptly avoiding schmaltz and sentimentality, Paul Cox so cleverly interweaves the tempestuous affair with flashbacks to their carefree, youthful ardor that it's tempting to forgive his cloying aphorisms ("Too much love is as bad as no love at all.") and inept editing. The obviously experienced and intelligent cast is excellent, performing even the most intimate scenes of reawakened sexuality with understated dignity and discretion. And Cox explains the title as having the opportunity to explore your first love again. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Innocence" is a warm, compassionate, insightful 8, proving that love and passion are ageless. As Cox puts it, "This film is a sanctuary - hopefully it will restore a bit of humanity to the cinema."
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