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INNOCENCE (2001) (****)

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I thought I had seen all the truly great films of 2001, but I was wrong. This is hands down one of the best from that year. Paul Cox's film is a powerful, honest romance that lifts up the heart and makes it warm. I only give four stars to films that inspire me. This one not only inspired me artistically, but also personally.

The story is a simple love triangle between two lovers who were in love when they were young and reunite again when they are in their late sixties. Andreas (Charles Tingwell, THE DISH) writes his teenage flame Claire (Julia Blake, HOTEL DE LOVE) and asks to see her again. They still have the same passion for each other after all this time. Andreas is a widower, but Claire is married to John (Terry Norris, TV's NOAH'S ARK), a man so clueless in his routines that he barely even listens to what his wife says to him. When she tells him that she's having an affair (because she's too old to lie), he thinks she has gone crazy and asks their son David (OSCAR AND LUCINDA), a doctor, to look in on her.

The film is so honest about why the affair happens and how the parties react that I was simply blown away. The film isn't about grand gestures, but about the real everyday feelings and emotions of its characters. The film tackles such themes as love and death with a philosopher's mind and a child-like spirit that is thought provoking. Andreas refuses to let the world tell him that his life, the way he wants to live it, is over because of his age. The film understands that people don't have to stop feeling and wanting to experience new things once their children are grown. It also understands that most people don't understand this. John is sadly one of those people. Claire is trapped between these two ways of looking at life. She was content with John's way of simply ticking off the days until there were not more days to tick off. Andreas has given her a new option. But this option comes with all the problems with unexpectedly changing unspoken plans decades in the making.

I only hope that I am as passionate about living at Andreas' age as he is and I will always be haunted by what loss one can suffer if you are trapped by routine like John. So many films are simply inspired by other films. The rare ones that are informed by life are like opening up a clouded window and seeing the sunshine in a new way. This is not hyperbole. This is a masterpiece that you will never forget.

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Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
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