Innocence

Lovers separated for more than 40 years reunite and rekindle their passion for each other in this restrained but engrossing Australian drama about adultery and other affairs of the heart. He is a widowed music teacher (Charles Tingwell) still enamored by his first love’s youth, innocence and smile. She is now a svelte grandmother (Julia Blake) who is stuck in a marriage that has become routine at best and wants love, not just sacrifice, from her emotionally distant first husband. This latent romance between two lovers who are too old for a midlife crisis but still vital enough to enjoy one feels like a strange dream where nothing may be impossible. It’s a story in which to love is to be aware of eternity that is partially told via flashbacks to Belgium. Written and directed by Paul Cox.