Innocents (2000) from Tuna

Innocents, aka Dark Summer, is a Canadian thriller which sports a French Cellist/music professor on a road trip, two deranged sisters (Mia Kirshner and Connie Nielsen), an alcoholic mother, and abusive father, a perverted judge, two highway serial killers, and lots of shooting. You might wonder how they could combine all of this into a movie worth watching. Well, my opinion is that they couldn't.

Nielsen was not really her father's child, but the product of one of her mother's flings. Her father had the hots for her, so the mother left. Little sister (Kirshner) saw him abusing her, which pretty much screwed her up for life. All of this happened before the movie started. The music professor has an accident and meets Nielsen, who is a nurse at the hospital. The two end up in bed, then Connie and Mia kill their father, and go with the professor on a road trip.

Well, that is the set-up.
The only possible reason to watch this is breasts and buns from Nielsen. They were, however, in a nearly black scene, and a brief one at that.

NUDITY REPORT
see the main commentary

DVD info from Amazon.

  • no widescreen

  • no features
The film did have atmosphere, but it detracted from the mood. The original film probably looked better based on the Widescreen trailer (the film transfer is 4:3). A comment at IMDB reads "About halfway through the movie, we're trying to decide what's more ridiculous: the over-the-top emoting over deep, dark family secrets; Dominique's personality; the cello-and-fiddle jam session at a country-western bar; Gerard's big, dumb puppy-dog eyes; or the fact that we're still watching."
 

The Critics Vote

  • no major reviews on file

The People Vote ...

 
IMDb guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence, about like three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, about like two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, about like two stars from the critics. Films under five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film, equivalent to about one and a half stars from the critics or less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, this film is a C-. Genre: thriller. (Scoop: agree on the C-, I guess, but if you argue for a lower score, I don't have a strong rebuttal. It is juvenile, often incoherent, and more than a bit demented.)

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