Innocence

This film passed a rainy Sunday afternoon. I have to admit my attention wavered a few times resulting in having to rewind on a couple of occasions. I've seen worse films but the horror was woefully lacking. Some great actors in this who were a bit wasted on the story. If you want to see Kelly Reilly at her best I recommend you ditch this film and watch Eden Lake. Reilly's sometimes breathless over acting is so much more appropriate to the film Eden Lake and she puts in an "Edge of your seat" performance. Innocence? An ok film but distinctly lacking in something.

I enjoyed this film immensely. I had no preconceived ideas about it at all, which is usually the best way to approach a movie. Just pop Netflix on, sit back and be either disgusted, surprised or intrigued. For me, I am pleased to say, it was the last one. This film was very well done indeed and everyone had worked very hard to achieve this result. A blockbuster it wasn't, by any means, but I wasn't expecting one. The film was slow-paced, but that isn't always a bad thing. The subject matter of dark goings-on in a private girls' school did not call for a frenetic free-for-all. Even the young lead star moved very slowly through the story as though she were walking through treacle but it was a lovely performance. Indeed, all the cast was first class, apart from the father who came across as an unfeeling wimp. Maybe he was meant to play it that way. Whatever, he was outshone by the ladies, who treated us to some very welcome eye candy. I found the photography and lighting to be stunningly executed on nearly every shot. The suspense was sustained very well too. The special effects were very laudable considering the budget. Well done and thanks everyone and my good wishes in your future endeavours.

I think that this was a great display of effort. Great performances by Graham Phillips and Sarah Sutherland! I was also impressed by the work of director Hilary Brougher, one of my personal heroes. I think that though there is room for improvement in the this film I can tell that there was a great attempt made by the crew and especially the director. I can tell that the mistakes in the film were made most likely made during the editing process. I think that the composition is not quite up to par. Even so, I think that with a few changes and a little more experienced cast the experience of watching this movie would have been much improved.

Bad acting. Bad, sometimes nonsensical dialogue, boring and predictable plot, and some of the worst writing I've ever witnessed on screen. I wouldn't wish this film on my worst enemy. It's no wonder the director only has 4 movies under her belt. Stay away from this film if you value your time!

First off, you'll have no idea where this movie is going until it's nearly half way over, and then they slap you with the "story" which pretty much makes the movie's plot feel as though it changed 180 degrees. Up until this point, if you're still awake, you'll be bored to death with layers of irrelevant scenes mostly associated with teenage drama.

Oh, and this movie tries, but miserably fails, to be "artsy" in its direction at certain points. This kind of thing might please the college coffee shop crowd, but it doesn't make a good movie. The only way I can see anyone enjoying this movie is if they are the type of person who flat out hates popular, big budget movies, and exclusively enjoys crappy movies for the sake of being "different."

If you feel like wasting your time, then this movie is for you!

I discovered this on Netflix two days ago, and realised that I had watched only a part of it, so I decided to give it a rewatch and finish the film.

So far I can say that the movie does have potential in several areas - while the plot ideas may not be wholy original in concept, the way the film introduced those ideas could've been developed into something that may have potentially gotten some really good praise. A similar thing can be said for the casting; The actors and actresses I'd say are pretty good for a film like Innocence, and I think that that in itself opens up for more potential. Unfortunately though, the film is pretty flawed and has many aspects of it that hold it back from succession.

The plot progression felt extremely tacky and skittish - Bare in mind, there was some decently average (which average isn't bad, by the way) progression at the first 35 minutes of the movie, but then further on it was like as if the writer and director decided to rely the movie's storyline on being just filler (meaning material that has no value, that adds nothing worthwhile to the story) which unfortunately made the final sequence feel off and awkward. Furthermore, the structuring of the plot + transitioning between scenes and sequences also felt strange and poorly executed - There were a few scenes that were nicely paced and shot, but it was like as if those scenes were in an unnatural clash between the film's faster and weirdly shot moments. And then comes the character development: There were so many opportunities that the film missed out on when it came to character development (especially Pamela and Beckett), which made me so sad because Pamela and Beckett were two interesting characters that I thought the movie would develop on. Overall, the film left many gaps within it that made it feel unfufilling, which is heartbreaking because the film had so much potential that it carelessly left behind :(