O Inocente

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.

This movie has three serious flaws. It never finds a focus, (ultimately, I cared very little about any of the characters), it has the always fateful flaw of dialog that gets lost in whispered tones or buried beneath the score or SFX, and finally ... WHY, in heaven's name is Anthony Hopkins using his not-so-convincing American accent to play a character that could have been played better by half-a-dozen American actors? And I'm a Hopkins fan! Sorry, it just doesn't work. Although it tries to be both a suspense and love story, it accomplishes neither. That's all the more frustrating when the end arrives with what I assume is an homage to Casablanca. The whole thing is poorly focused and generally weak, despite solid performances by Isabella and Scott.

In 1955, Berlin is completely crowded of spies of different nationalities. The British civilian Leonard Markham (Campbell Scott) is requested to support an American – British joint-venture in a secret project leaded by the American Robert Glass (Anthony Hopkins) due to his knowledge of electronics. Afterhours, in his spare time, the naive Leonard meets the divorced Maria (Isabella Rossellini) in a night-club and they have an affair, falling in love for each other. However, Otto (Ronald Nitschke), the former husband of Maria, threatens and blackmails her, affecting the personal life and the professional performance of Leonard, culminating in a difficult situation for him. "The Innocent" is a surprisingly good love story in times of cold war. While in "Casablanca" the elegant Rick Blaine spontaneously sacrifices his love for Ilsa Lund Laszlo in a noble situation, in "The Innocent" we see a sacrifice of a love provoked by a dirty and nasty situation. However, this movie has action, love, black humor and suspense and is a worthwhile entertainment. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): " O Inocente" ("The Innocent")

I quite liked this film. But probably because I think there are perhaps more important things than the manner in which Anthony Hopkins is miscast. You just have to overlook that. Campbell Scott is great and really carries the whole film. I really enjoyed the way the film was held together, the cinematography and the use of really bad American Music to get across the brashness and invasiveness of their culture even back then. If you've read books like Spycatcher you'll appreciate this film. On the other hand if you think Bond films are good, you'll most likely hate it. I would have liked the sex scenes to be more, shall we say 'fleshed out', they fade off all too quickly. It's very rare in popular film that you get good sex scenes that are filmed with warmth and tenderness. The use of lighting and angles is great. What got to me more than Hopkin's dodgy accent was the stupid female character. Can't we just forget reality for a bit and stop casting women as quivering idiots. Sure that's how they seem to behave in all important situations, but it's so annoying to be put through it over and over again. Let's have an intelligent female lead who decides she's going to take responsibility for her dumb, impulsive behaviour and make amends. As opposed to leaving everything up to the bloke and then running off with his friend. And did anyone notice that all the men around her drink heavily? I think this would be a good book and there's obviously stuff missing from the film, but still I give it 8/10.

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.