Review of In All Innocence

Introduction

If you`re looking for a movie depicting the emotional and physical effects that a mid-life crisis can have on an individual and their loved ones, they don`t come much better than Sam Mendes` Oscar winning masterpiece `American Beauty`. Overcoming the pretensions that stifle most similar attempts (by actively turning them into normality) Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening turned out dazzling performances in a film which, at the close of the century, showed just how good the premier art-form of the last 100 years could be.

A year earlier, French director Pierre Jolivet had tried the same thing, with differing results. Lawyer Michel Farnese (Gérard Lanvin) helps to acquit the foxy Cecile (Virginie Ledoyen) of attempted armed robbery, despite not being paid and putting the rest of his work in jeopardy. Why? Because he wants to `do the sex` with her of course!

Whether or not this is actually a mid-life crisis or just the result of Cecile`s youthful beauty is not made clear, but whilst Michel gives up his lovely French Mini-mansion (although I don`t think that estate agents would necessarily refer to it as that) and hard faced-yet-loyal wife to be with his fantasy girl, Cecile has other ideas. Her insistence on having her cake AND eating it means that she is still tangled in the web of deceit spun by her ex-boyfriend Vincent (Guillaume Canet - husband of Hollywood starlet Diane Kruger), who she is unable to stop sleeping with. Or just doesn`t want to.

Ledoyen and Canet will already be familiar to those who remember DiCaprio`s post-Titanic drug fuelled escapist nonsense picture `The Beach`; they were the French couple that he attached himself to. For this reason, audiences are immediately drawn to make a comparison between the two films, despite only having one thing in common- both are shamefully disappointing.

Video

Opening with a splendid fade in/out montage of Cecile (and partner in crime Samira) getting ready to go on a stealing spree at one Paris` high society parties, the tone of a rather interesting looking film is set, and immediately ruined by the remainder of the film.

Visually, nothing else sets this picture apart from its competitors. For a film which is already thin on plot and substance, this is a BIG problem. OK, so the picture quality itself is perfectly passable, the transfer being well handled, but is that enough to keep the viewer interested through the 97 minutes of hackneyed story and utmost predictability? I`d have to say `Non`.

Audio

As with the visual aspects of the film, there is nothing to excite or mark this film out. Whereas there is plenty of house music to highlight Cecile and Vincent`s love of `the high life` (the lifestyle of amphetamine guzzling youths as opposed to not the mid-nineties sitcom starring Alan Cummings), it`s all extremely dated and, not wishing to seem too retro-phobic, faintly embarrassing.

Features

Rien!

Conclusion

Certain films thrive on thin plotlines and scarce storytelling; it gives us a chance to actually get to know the characters, rather than feel like we are in constant pursuit of their attributes. The well-acknowledged downside to this is that, for half the audience, a slower pace of film is deemed boring. In recent years, `Lost In Translation` seems to be the obvious example of such a film splitting audiences and critics down the middle, chainsaw style, so that they form neat piles of `love it`s and `hate it`s.

To `In all Innocence`s credit, there is unlikely to be such a division, but this is only because most viewers will be united in the belief that it`s just plain dull. After the initial 30 minutes which sees Lawyer and Lover win their trial, the next hour is populated by a rather tedious and uninspiring attempt to come to terms with their relationship, not helped by Cecile`s floozy behind-his-back antics.

Actually, the word `antics` carries connotations of excitement, and is badly placed in this context - I meant to say `goings on` - you know, like the way sleepy villages have `goings on` on the form of cake raffles and a farmer shaving off his once distinguished beard? These `goings on` eventually result in the disintegration of their relationship and a predictably uneventful outcome in the last few frames.

Adding nothing to the cannon of `old man, young girl` films that are already filling the shelves of rental shops all over the world, the phrase `In all innocence` is likely to be used as a defence when those who were involved with its production are questioned about it in years to come. Unknowingly missing every target that should be a prerequisite in its genre, it makes for unrewarding viewing in the first degree.

Guilty as charged.