Innocent, coupable d'aimer

There are a couple guys whose movies I will automatically see if possible: Gene Hackman and Anthony Hopkins. Because the latter was in this one, I gave it a go. Unfortunately, I never bought into his character. It's not for the effort made by a wonderful actor. It's a bad casting choice. He seems out of place. I'm also intrigued by the guy whose job it is to be involved in espionage, ignoring the warnings of his superiors. Hopkins knows this guys every move and knows that he has become an imperfect cog in the works. Granted, this goes back many years and the sophistication of the world of the spy has changed, but there is so much carelessness here. We also have fragile characters who probably should never have been signed up for this job. Anyway, when Hopkins' character moves in, I just never buy it. I also never buy the business of creating a relationship, only to betray it and ultimately gain nothing from it. This is a poor man's "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy." It is so lacking on so many levels. It also has a pretty schmaltzy ending which I won't betray. See what you think.

Is it a spy story? Is it a murder thriller? Is it a love story? This movie tries to be all three and ends up being a mess.

Anthony Hopkins effort as an American security officer is uneven and almost lacking in emotion. His strong American nasal accent which reminds me of his role in the "Road to Wellville" fades as the movie goes on and almost lapses to his native English.

On the other hand Campbell Scott, an American, does an outstanding job of playing an English scientist to the limits of the convoluted script. One can't help wondering if an important 30 minutes of story was left on the cutting room floor.

Probably the only scene of interest is in the final 10 minutes of the picture and it occurs at an airport in Berlin. The common views and elements of the scene as compared to the airport scene in "Casablanca" are probably intentional as Isabella Rossellini is the daughter of Ingrid Bergman.

My suggestion is to watch "Casablanca" first then the final 10 minutes of this movie as that is about all anyone will want to remember of "The Innocent".

I don't go out of my way usually to see John Schlessinger movies-somehow Sunday, Bloody, Sunday never had the impact on me, that it did on others. In fact, I always have to remind myself that Herr. Schlesinger directed Cold Comfort Farm, seeing as I enjoyed it immensely.

Why then am I watching The Innocent? Two immediate reasons come to mind. First, my affinity for The Comfort of Strangers has sent me on a mission to find all adapted Ian McEwan novels. Second, the fact that Campbell Scott stars is something to which I immediately find appealing.

In recent years I've decided that Scott will soon become an important American actor…his almost genius cameos in The Daytrippers, and Big Night (which he also co-directed) as well as his starring role in David Mamet's Spanish Prisoner lend me to believe the young man is indeed on his way.

The film itself, unfortunately pales in comparison to a startling, brilliant piece of work like Comfort of Strangers. Anthony Hopkins is miscast as an American CIA agent, the story is shallow and uneven.

On to the next McEwan work.

There was here a phenomenal film but something got into its system and destroyed it. Not completely, whoever perpetrated the crime wasn't talented enough to go all the way and some beautiful pieces of evidence, showing the masterful hand of John Schlesinger, survived the massacre. The atmosphere of the first hour for starters. Isabella Rosellini's performance. Her best. Campbell Scott an actor incapable of being boring, not even when he plays bores. Trevor Howard before him was a master at that. The truth is that the reviews had been so bad that the only two reason I actually bough a ticket were 1. John Schlesinger, one of my heroes 2.Hart Bochner, yep, after "Apartment Zero" I was desperate to see him again, in anything. Well he was hardly in it, at least not on this, obviously, mutilated, butchered version I saw. I did spend quite a few bucks in therapy to have my therapist say that my obsession with "Apartment Zero" was quite harmless. No, according to him my real problem was a huge monstrous woman. I must confess it disturbed me a little bit. But that night I had a dream. I dreamed that the film had been taken away from John Schlesinger by a huge monstrous woman. Go figure.

I like watching this film every time they repeat it on TV, because I can't stop counting the dozens of references to "Casablanca".

My favourite is without doubt the final - guess what? - airport scene, where Isabella Rossellini (Elsa, err, Ingrid Bergman's daughter!) gets on board the propeller-engined plane, this time (surprise, surprise!) with the aging American and leaving behind the boring spy-guy, who is (dramatic change of scriptbook) not Czech, but British.