Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
76
(500) Days of Summer
49
2012
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
70
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
52
Blind Side
47
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
23
Couples Retreat
39
Fame
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
41
G-Force
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
28
Pandorum
58
Pirate Radio
39
Planet 51
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
46
Twilight Saga: New Moon, The
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum![]()
56
Adam
39
Adventures of Power
66
Afterschool
73
Amreeka
49
Antichrist
76
Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86
Beaches of Agnes, The![]()
71
Big Fan
65
Black Dynamite
76
Bliss
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
44
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
Bright Star![]()
76
Broken Embraces
70
Bronson
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
60
Collapse
82
Cove, The![]()
75
Crude
82
Damned United, The![]()
53
Dare
50
Defamation
67
Departures
70
Earth Days
85
Education, An![]()
55
Endgame
88
Fantastic Mr. Fox![]()
31
Fix
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
xx
From Mexico with Love
28
Gentlemen Broncos
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo![]()
63
Horse Boy, The
74
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
26
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
43
Little Traitor, The
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
46
Love Hurts
84
Maid, The![]()
45
Mammoth
75
Messenger, The
55
Missing Person, The
59
More Than a Game
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
48
New York, I Love You
66
No Impact Man
26
Oh My God
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
79
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73
Red Cliff
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
65
Skin
41
Splinterheads
42
Staten Island
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
58
Storm
82
Sun, The![]()
49
Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon
73
That Evening Sun
61
Trucker
49
Turning Green
83
U2 3D![]()
45
Uncertainty
67
Visual Acoustics
32
War on Kids
67
Way We Get By, The
65
Wedding Song, The
xx
White on Rice
59
William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
74
Woman in Berlin, A
43
Women in Trouble
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Innocence
EMAILPRINTFireworks Pictures / IDP Releasing

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 22 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 5 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
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.
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database
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...
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.
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.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
If there's a more passionate love story out there, then I haven't had the privilege of seeing it.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
A beautiful, almost defiant film on an unusual subject: love among the elderly.
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.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly F. X. Feeney
Cox's own directorial style is innocent, in the sense of being original without ever straining for effect.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
The originality of Innocence makes it stand apart from the romantic pack.
Read Full Review >USA Today Mike Clark
No situation could be more human, and it's one the youth-dominated film industry rarely touches.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak
Sometimes so intimate it's embarrassing, and the messiness at falling in love at any age is disquieting.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
This unusual romantic drama is sensitively acted by a well-chosen cast and subtly directed by Cox.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
The film never quite shakes its self-consciousness about just how special it is and that is a hindrance.
Read Full Review >New Times (L.A.) Bill Gallo
Paul Cox's admirers are sure to embrace this latest eruption of sincerity and sensitivity.
Miami Herald Marta Barber
Innocence is a gentle love story, one that touches on an issue of great sensitivity -- sexuality in old age.
Read Full Review >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.
The New York Times A.O. Scott
Mostly mediocre melodrama, though the actors suffering over love's labors lost are quite fine.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Leslie Camhi
Something lured Paul Cox down memory lane, but he should have stayed at home.
Read Full Review >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.
