INNOCENCE

INNOCENCE is a story about rekindled friendship and love between two elderly people. The movie begins with a flashback 50 years prior. A young man and woman, very much enamored with one another, are shown together, riding bicycles, talking, laughing and kissing. The two are from different towns and meet each other by train at the station. Very often the movie flashes back to the scene of the two holding one another while the train flashes by in the background.

Brought back to the present day, the man, now in his 70s, composes a letter to his first love. Claire (Julia Blake) takes the train to meet up with Andreas (Charles “Bud” Tingwell) in response to the letter, and the two reminisce and catch up on each other’s lives. Andreas had married, but his wife died many years ago from cancer. Claire is still wed and lives with her husband, but the marriage is not one of passion or great love. “We’re good friends,” Claire says. Upsettingly, John appears to have never taken a personal interest in Claire. He barely knows his own wife, her quirks and beautiful personality, things which Andreas understands so well.

As the movie continues slowly, the audience is fed more tidbits of information about the initial separation of Andreas and Claire. The two become close again during the reunion and soon find themselves embroiled in a complicated relationship. Andreas and Claire are still just as much in love as they were 50 years ago. The only thing preventing them from being together is John (Terry Norris), Claire’s husband.

At the turning point of events, Claire decides to spend the night with Andreas. The two are intimate, just as if they had been together all of their lives. Afterward, she decides that the right thing to do is to tell John what happened. At first, John does not believe that his wife of half a century would do such a thing, and he laughs at her. It does not take long for him to be convinced of the truth, however. John becomes enraged and confused. He does everything in his power to win back the affections of his wife. Soon the lives of these three elderly people are turned upside down. Claire must decide between her first true love and the man with whom she has built a life.

INNOCENCE searches for many things; one being the meaning of love. Often throughout the movie, the characters attempt to explain what love is and why people act and feel certain ways. No clear point about love is ever settled, except for the fact that love becomes more intense the closer it comes to death. Another interesting aspect of this movie is the brief occurrence of Andreas debating religion with a priest. Andreas apparently had left Claire so many years ago to play the organ with the church. However, in the present tense of the movie, he appears to be an Atheist.

The touchy subjects of infidelity, death and belief in Christ are dealt with in INNOCENCE. Overall, the story is interesting, but the movie is unbearably slow and drawn out. With no clear point to the story, INNOCENCE is an adulterous depiction of desire at its worst.

In his commandments, God tells his people quite simply “do not commit adultery.” Jesus calls us to join with our spouses and become one. His Word written notes that once we have accept Jesus Christ, then our bodies become the temple of the Holy Spirit, and we must not defame His Holy Spirit with sexual impurity. In fact, adultery is similar to idolatry, both abhorred by God, because we are called to keep our commitment to God and our spouse.

Moreover, as Dr. Edwin Cole notes:

“By that definition, love is the desire to benefit others even at the expense of self, because love desires to give. Lust is perverted love. Lust is the desire to benefit self at the expense of others because lust desires to get. Love is easily satisfied. Lust is insatiable. Love is the nature of heaven. Lust is the nature of hell. To live a life based on lust is a hell of a life. Old time televisions series such as THE BRADY BUNCH, FATHER KNOWS BEST, showed us love. Sure they showed it in terms of the ideal, but it gave us something to live up to in reality. Today most series are based on lust and give us something to live down to. Regeneration is the process in love, degeneration in lust.”

Thus, Andreas and Claire will never be content because they are not in love, but in lust. Their lust will consume them. The answer to their confusion is Jesus Christ and His Word written. However, the misnamed movie INNOCENCE is ignorant of the Truth that would set these two free from their lust.