Film Review – The Innocents (2022)
Remember what it was like to be a child? Blissfully unaware of the madness of the world around you – at least for the most part – without the stresses and strains that await to tear you down when you step into teenage hell and then the suffering that the world of adulting brings in the future. You could do anything, be anyone, take the leaps without the crippling anxieties of fear and angst that come with growing up, the freedom to go where the day takes you, and to make-believe whatever you wanted. The question, it seems, is what are children really like when they are left to their own devices? They make up their own worlds, they arrange their own music, they go their own way but what if they did things we didn’t expect? What if, they had their own secrets? Eskil Vogt’s bold, striking new film asks the question: what if those little secrets were big, uncontrollable ones?
The film follows a young family who is uprooted from their home to a housing estate in the hopes of starting afresh: the youngest of two daughters, Ida (Rakel Lenora Flottum), has struggled to make friends and feels left out of the family dynamic as sister Anna (Alva Brynsmo Ramstad) takes most of the attention away due to her autism. Exploring the neighbourhood one day, Ida meets Ben (Sam Ashraf) and Aisha (Mina Yasmin Bremseth Asheim) and the three hit it off instantaneously but soon they all realise they share a strange connection: they all seem to have special powers, powers that each one then comes to resent in the other.
“I wanted to make something about that secret world of childhood,” said Vogt when asked about why he wanted to make The Innocents, a very different film to his work with Joachim Trier, including the superb The Worst Person in the World from earlier this year, Louder Than Bombs and Thelma, but it is still very much his film and contains all of his off-kilter, surprising elements that made those other films so unique in their execution. It begins safely enough: it’s summertime and the kids are off playing and creating adventures, becoming friends, and adjusting to the strangeness of their new surroundings. Slowly but surely, their otherworldly nature begins to creep into focus and the film starts to take a darker tone. Vogt though takes his time to lure us into the darkness and the unknown with delicacy and thoughtfulness that makes the film even creepier than it may have been under someone else tutelage.
There isn’t any sprint to get to the “juicy” bits here: it’s about the long-drawn tension and the film’s more visceral nature than just being a straightforward scarer that wants to take the breath from you. It’s about the tortuous slow build here, and the film is richer for it. Indeed, strip away the more supernatural elements and you still have a rewarding, hard-hitting drama about childhood and the loss of innocence: when we supposedly lose it, do we really lose it? And when we do, how much does it affect us, and how does it shape us. Yes, it has all the hallmarks that could easily see it labelled a “superhero-lite” film given its nature but this is more than that, an allegory for how our tentative years really form who we become, performed by its incredible young cast who all shine bright.
★★★★
Thriller | 2022 | Signature Entertainment | Dir: Eskil Vogt | Rakel Lenora Fløttum, Alva Brynsmo Ramstad, Sam Ashraf, Mina Yasmin Bremseth Asheim, Ellen Dorrit Petersen, Morten Svartveit, Kadra Yusuf, Lisa Tønne
Discover more from
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
About the Author
