In the Prague suburb, Tomas seems to live the perfect middle-class life among a smiling advertising-type family. He took his wife away from her former husband and gave her a much more accomplished kid, compared to the first disabled one she had with Lada, the dismissed loser. Tomas runs the kids’ birthdays, reads them fairytales, organizes barbecues, claps and shares knowing glances all around. As if that wasn’t enough, he’s also a doctor in a children’s rehabilitation unit. Briefly said, Tomas is unbearably dreary. Obviously, things will change soon. According to an adolescent patient of him, Mr. Boring would also be an amateur of sexual healing… And here’s the crack. Lada, who basically lost everything, appears to be the good cop – yes, he’s a loser and a cop – in charge of the case…

Based on this solid stereotyped scheme, the puzzle pieces will literally get shuffled. Pretty much every character will be saddled with a dark side. It is very impressive to realize we’re permanently asking ourselves who is the title about. For that matter, Innocence is a brilliant psychological drama, that’s for sure. In this twisted chaos, there is this Lada guy, as white as Jesus Christ’s robe itself. Abandoned husband and father of an handicapped son, good cop with a flawless and objective judgment. He’s the true lamb and would certainly show his left cheek if he got slapped on the right. And he did, actually. He’s clearly the only miraculous cliché to be spared. Is he standing there as a message of hope, is he really convincing? He mostly clashes among the subtly shaped profiles he gives the line to. Anyway, if there was anything Innocence would be worth taking a look at, it would definitely be the way characters evolve along the film.

Aesthetically, Jan Hrebejk shows a tried and tested technique. The shots unfold naturally with a sustained pace and no particular trick. A modern, nice and clean treatment that really exudes a serious mastery as much in the shooting as in the film editing. The problem if any would rather come from the script…

Unfortunately, Jan Hrebejk was a little too ambitious. More than a psychological drama, Innocence flirts dangerously with the thriller codes. It gives this uneasy impression to watch two films in a single copy. Things are actually complicated, if not far-fetched. To solve the narrative intrigue, the script borrows the idea of the divine impartiality to the Eschyle’s familial curse, as human justice failed to give the sinner the right sentence. Well, a sinner according to the Judeo-Christian long time culture. Another common place to be solid as rock, in this story where everything seemed to be questioned.