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Innocence

EMAILPRINTFireworks Pictures / IDP Releasing

Innocence reviews
73
7.8 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 22 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 5 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Romance

Written by: Paul Cox

Directed by: Paul Cox

Release Date:
Theatrical: August 17, 2001
DVD: December 10, 2002

Running Time: 95 minutes, Color

Origin: Australia

Summary

RATING: Not Rated

Starring Julia Blake, Charles 'Bud' Tingwell, Terry Norris, and Kristien Van Pellicom

The story of the love triangle that is created when a widower seeks out the married woman he fell in love with forty years earlier.

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Films that achieve the dimension of seraphic embrace achieved by 'Innocence, as it explores a return to first love, are the rarest of the rare.

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Here is the most passionate and tender love story in many years, so touching because it is not about a story, not about stars, not about a plot, not about sex, not about nudity, but about LOVE itself.

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88

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

If there's a more passionate love story out there, then I haven't had the privilege of seeing it.

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88

New York Post Lou Lumenick

This is a beautifully acted chamber piece --especially by the magnificent Blake, who is married to Norris in real life.

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88

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

A beautiful, almost defiant film on an unusual subject: love among the elderly.

80

Washington Post Desson Thomson

A film that's tender and disarming for its intimate honesty. It's also deeply refreshing to see a movie that dares to explore sexuality among mature characters.

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80

LA Weekly F. X. Feeney

Cox's own directorial style is innocent, in the sense of being original without ever straining for effect.

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78

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

The originality of Innocence makes it stand apart from the romantic pack.

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75

USA Today Mike Clark

No situation could be more human, and it's one the youth-dominated film industry rarely touches.

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75

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Remarkable in several big ways.

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75

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

Sometimes so intimate it's embarrassing, and the messiness at falling in love at any age is disquieting.

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75

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Like an impressionist painting. Scrutinize it closely, and the details don't make sense individually. Step back from it to study the big picture, and it will make a sweeping effect.

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75

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

This unusual romantic drama is sensitively acted by a well-chosen cast and subtly directed by Cox.

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70

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

The film never quite shakes its self-consciousness about just how special it is and that is a hindrance.

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70

New Times (L.A.) Bill Gallo

Paul Cox's admirers are sure to embrace this latest eruption of sincerity and sensitivity.

70

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

A beautifully acted, intensely felt story.

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70

Washington Post Rita Kempley

A sweet but labored love story.

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63

Miami Herald Marta Barber

Innocence is a gentle love story, one that touches on an issue of great sensitivity -- sexuality in old age.

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63

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

It's reassuring to see love and sex in one's 70s depicted as fully replenishing. At the same time, it's sobering to think that it's no easier in the twilight of life to make rational decisions regarding the heart.

60

The New York Times A.O. Scott

Mostly mediocre melodrama, though the actors suffering over love's labors lost are quite fine.

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40

Chicago Reader Ronnie Scheib

It's all so overdetermined -- each encounter of the present-day lovers mirrors some moment from the long-ago day when they parted -- that it reduces their whole affair to a matter of last-minute revisionism.

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40

Village Voice Leslie Camhi

Something lured Paul Cox down memory lane, but he should have stayed at home.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 7.8 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Greg gave it a9:
This is a beautiful film for all ages. The flashing back and forth between the young lovers and themselves as seniors is done tastefully and emotionally. The husband is played passionately and understandably. It would ruin the experience to say more. Thanks to the writer/director/camera operator/actors. A wonderful film about love. I would have given it 10, but I remain unsettled about one or two questions, which I feel should have been clearly answered and were not.

Chad S. gave it a10:
When Claire(Julia Blake) encounters her husband in the kitchen, this septuagenarian suddenly radiates twenty-one through posture, facial expression and by walking with a spring in her step. You say to yourself, "Aaaah, now that's acting." Never has a film used flashbacks more effectively than "Innocence". Something eerie happens. You sense their twenty-something souls radiating out of their wrinkled faces.

Jiva D. gave it a 10:
I've only seen it twice. Next time I will figure out whether the man who crosses the RR tracks is indeed the director. If you don't cry toward the end (the Dance) then you ought to learn how to do so!!

Chad S. gave it a 10:
When Claire(Julia Blake) encounters her husband in the kitchen, this septuagenarian suddenly radiates twenty-one through posture, facial expression and by walking with a spring in her step. You say to yourself, "Aaaah, now that's acting." Never has a film used flashbacks more effectively than "Innocence". Something eerie happens. You sense their twenty-something souls radiating out of their wrinkled faces.

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