Blond und skrupellos

In a time when most movie plots are derivative and predictable it is nice to be surprised and kept guessing like the thriller "Dark Summer" starring Connie Nielsen. Writer, Director Gregory Marquette kept the pace unpredictable and breathless. Just when you think you know where this movie is going it changes tracks on you and you are caught in the whirlwind of mystery and intrigue. Co-stars Mia Kirshner and Jean Hugues Anglade are powerful and very convincing. It was also a lot of fun when the power cameos made their appearances. Robert Culp, a perennial favorite of mine is absolutely wicked as the disgraced Judge. Ann Archer, who I cannot recall ever taking a role like the one she portrayed in this film, is worthy for a Golden Globe as the alcoholic mother. Other Cameo's like Frank Langella and Keith David are too short to be a satisfying but I give this film a solid recommend for the viewers, like myself, who are tired of the same old formulaic plots of Hollywood's recycling factory.

This is a smart film. When I watched this film I found myself thoroughly engaged by it on many levels. But it's a very complex film, insofar as it not really about things that happen, so much as it is about what causes people to do the things they do.

The two girls, Megan and Dominique, do terrible things in this story, but what is lovely about this film is that it creates an opportunity for us to feel ambiguous about their actions. Are they justified in their actions or should we judge them harshly for their deeds? Society would judge them, the law would judge them - but how do we judge them as human beings, trying to survive the chaos and emotional turmoil of life? Is it rational to judge them? These are all good questions - and in the end, The Innocents becomes more than a simple story. The Innocents is a Greek Tragedy by any other name. Its classic issues are at the core of the fabric of humanity. It's tough material and strong and bold.

The protagonist, Gerard, who travels with the girls on this so-called "innocent" journey, is caught in a web from which he cannot extricate himself. Should he try, the girls will pin their deeds on him. It's the perfect platform for a crime. The more the innocent man objects and tries to pull away, the more guilty he will look. In the sense, there is a "Hitchcock" homage at play here, for those who know the genre.

On the surface these are very nice girls, but underneath, they are damaged, angry and in fact, given the wrong set of circumstances, very dangerous. This film leads you on an emotional roller-coaster and no matter what anyone may say, this is extremely well-written and most unpredictable. In an era of Hollywood film-making where plots are derivative and endings are known by an audience twenty minutes into the film, The Innocents (called Dark Summer in Europe)breaks the mold. There is nothing predictable about "The Innocents". Not at all.

The actors are extraordinary, including Jean-Hugues Anglade, Connie Neilson, Mia Kirshner, Anne Archer, Frank Langella, Keith David and Robert Culp. You don't see cinema like this very often in America (because this may be too intellectually and emotionally demanding)and to that extent I am positive that certain reviewers may not get this film, it's their loss.

I saw the European DVD of this movie, as well, and there are many more scenes than are in the U.S. version. It's quite interesting to see the additional scenes and definitely more satisfying.

The Innocents is a very smart, cunning, emotionally well-crafted piece of film-making and high regards to those who had the vision to back it. I hope to see many more films from this filmmaker.

This has been compared to Hitchcock but I'm not sure why. It isn't that Hitch didn't make a lot of road movies. He made a lot of them, beginning with "The Thirty-Nine Steps." But there was always a gimmick, something towards which the protagonists were heading, and the reason was clear even if the particular MacGuffin was not. This road movie has no goal, not even character development. We get the picture of character in the first few minutes: one peaceful Frenchman and two crazy sisters, an innocent and two broads. (That's meant to be a play on words. See Mark Twain.) The sisters remain pretty much the same throughout. The French musician realizes what's up but feels some vague sense of loyalty (or something) towards these women that keeps him from turning them over. He has the best line in the movie -- "You Americans, and your guns!" The film runs from one episode to the next without adding much to what we already know. Hitch's movies were filled with episodes and set pieces too, but they added up to more than the sum of their parts. The cameos here are interesting but don't change the nature of the film. The cellist and the Gold Dust Twins run into all kinds of creepy characters -- two pick-up artists in a cowboy saloon; a retired judge with a penchant for peeping (naughty!); the pick-up artists redux, this time as rapists/gunmen; the mother, a nice quick portrait by Amy Archer made more impressive by horrible makeup and compulsive use of the f word. What's there isn't badly handled. There's a nice Dakota thunderstorm. When the two gunmen get blasted, one gets it in long shot, with a distant strobe flash and puff of smoke bluish in the headlights. The acting is okay too. The Frogs have this ability to take an actor and make him inhabit a part to such an extent that we forget that he never seems a promising lead -- this guy here, Jean Reno, others. Ordinary faces in extraordinary circumstances. In its structure, if it resembles Hitchcock at all, it's late, kind of tired Hitchcock. "The Birds" maybe, without the Oedipal underpinnings, the incest theme notwithstanding.

I have to say the first time I saw this movie I was left stunned.

This is superbly photographed, well acted and very unpredictable road movie thriller.

This is one movie where I honestly could not predict what was going to happen next. An excellent cast headed by French actor Jean Hugues Anglade (Betty Blue, Killing Zoe) the very luminous Connie Nielsen (Gladiator, The Ice Harvest) & sexy Mia Kirshner (The Black Dahlia, Mad City)play two sisters in a very unusual road movie.

The supporting cast is excellent too with the likes of Frank Langella, Anne Archer, Robert Culp & Keith David.

The storyline throws up one surprise after another as the three go on the road after the sister's father passes, quite quickly though things take a very dark turn and Gerard Huxley (Jean Hugues Anglade) begins to wonder if he has made a grave mistake.

The music in the film is good and the locations are beautifully photographed.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and really cannot understand the low score. I give it 7/10

Every once in a while a strange movie will come along and knock your socks off. I have always been a video store junkie looking for that odd gem that you can freak out your buddies with and I have found just such a movie. A new director named Gregory Marquette served up a tasty dish with his movie `Dark Summer'

(aka `Innocents') When I first took this home I was like `What the hell is going on..' and that feeling kept going on because this film never succumbed to the ordinary, only the extraordinary.

Jean Hughes Anglade, which any fan of `la Femme Nakita' will always

recognize, stars in this bizarre tale of lies and deception and was absolutely divine as the main protagonist Huxley. The man is a statement in

understatement. But I digress.

The film opens with an interrogation by one of the finest, solid character actor's, Keith David, interrogating Anglade's character about a series of murders and

from that point on I was hooked. Now don't get me wrong, this film is very

twisted and very very unconventional, but that is what so attracted me to the piece.

`Dark Summer', to me, is about the conflict of perception and innocence. The two antagonists, Mia Kirshner (Yummmm) and Connie Nielson, as the creepy

sisters, keep the dementia going by defying all definition. My point is the film kept fooling me (which is rare). Nothing is as it seems with this effort.

Power cameos by Frank Langella, Robert Culp, and the always excellent Keith

David, feed the twisted plot with a texture that is beyond the reach of the

Hollywood schlock machine. Anne Archer gives a bravura performance well

outside of the reach of any of the roles she has been saddled with in the past. (`Clear And Present Danger' Yuccchhhh!)

I think what really impressed me about this movie is you never know where this son of a gun is going. I do not want to give away the plot but I have rarely been fooled by plots and scripting, but this movie is the most different journey of any movie I have seen in recent history.

All in all the morality tale here is that no matter how decent you may be, the world conspires against you. Innocence is vulnerability, integrity is a liability.

Get a six pack, a good girl or friend and curl up with this movie, I guarantee that you will have a long, long talk afterward.

I hope I am not too vague but I am loath to give away the real joy of a film not being predictable and contrived. Who cares if it's not commercial, this movie made me sit on the edge of my seat and think. To the film makers, thank you. To it's critics, go ahead, make your own movie---I dare you!