The Innocent: Irregular Lovers, by David Bax
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Louis Garrel, the director, star and co-writer of the new French crime dramedy The Innocent, comes from a French cinematic dynasty, a family full of actors and directors. He’s been widely awarded and nominated for his work in various facets of filmmaking and his name immediately conjures a whiff of cognoscenti prestige. That’s why it’s a little bit surprising–most pleasantly so–that The Innocent is so genre-forward.
Still, esteem clings to the Innocent, most noticeably in its casting. Garrel is the lead, as is often the case with his directed films. And the other two actors with the most screen time are Noémie Merlant (Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Tár) and Roschdy Zem from Rebecca Zlotowski‘s soon to be released Other People’s Children and an underseen favorite of mine, 2014’s Bird People, directed by Pascale Ferran (who, frustratingly, hasn’t made another feature since). The point is that this crime flick is brimming with class.
With deliciously suspenseful music from Grégoire Hetzel (who has scored films such as Arnaud Desplechin‘s My Golden Days and, coincidentally, Anne Fontaine‘s The Innocents), The Innocent doesn’t attempt to apologize for or polish its classical genre roots. Garrel even employs retro touches like split screens and irises to emphasize a certain throwback respect to crime cinema’s roots.
Like much of Garrel’s work both on and off the screen, The Innocent is also a comedy. Most of the laughs come from character beats as Garrel’s reserved Abel finds himself a fish out of water in his attempts to uncover (and then ultimately get involved in) the underworld activities of his mother’s new husband, Michel (Zem). There’s no slapstick here, though the climax does involve a thrillingly broad and well-staged set piece. The subtle nature of the humor is an enticing counterbalance to the film’s increasingly large stakes. The deeper Abel gets into the world of freight theft, the more hilarious the friction with his insecure bristliness.
Part of the big job Abel finds himself a part of by the third act involves him recruiting his friend Clémence (Merlant) and the two of them pretending to get into an argument to create a distraction. Garrel spends so much time on the preparation and execution of this detail that The Innocent begins to call to mind Reservoir Dogs, another film that finds a parallel to the theater in the subterfuge that must be a necessary part of criminal life. That Abel and Clémence eventually come to learn more about themselves by pretending to be other people betrays the fact that this is a movie directed by an actor.
Like many plot-driven genre films, by the time all the big narrative contrivances have played themselves out, you’ll find that you’ve gone on just as much of a character journey as a story one. Bonds have been forged and relationships have been changed forever in ways that are beautifully translated to the viewer. The Innocent is one of the more moving heist flicks you’re ever likely to see.