| 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.
|
| 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.
|
| 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.
|
| 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.
|
| 80 |
LA Weekly
F. X. Feeney
Cox's own directorial style is innocent, in the sense of being original without ever straining for effect.
|
| 78 |
Austin Chronicle
Marjorie Baumgarten
The originality of Innocence makes it stand apart from the romantic pack.
|
| 75 |
USA Today
Mike Clark
No situation could be more human, and it's one the youth-dominated film industry rarely touches.
|
| 75 |
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
Remarkable in several big ways.
|
| 75 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Paula Nechak
Sometimes so intimate it's embarrassing, and the messiness at falling in love at any age is disquieting.
|
| 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.
|
| 75 |
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
This unusual romantic drama is sensitively acted by a well-chosen cast and subtly directed by Cox.
|
| 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.
|
| 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.
|
| 70 |
Washington Post
Rita Kempley
A sweet but labored love story.
|
| 63 |
Miami Herald
Marta Barber
Innocence is a gentle love story, one that touches on an issue of great sensitivity -- sexuality in old age.
|
| 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.
|
| 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.
|
| 40 |
Village Voice
Leslie Camhi
Something lured Paul Cox down memory lane, but he should have stayed at home.
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