Perhaps best known as Joachim Trier’s screenwriting partner on the “Oslo Trilogy,” including last year’s The Worst Person in the World, Eskil Vogt has begun an intriguing directorial filmography of his own. The Innocents sees the writer-director travel into familiar thriller territory, using supernatural aspects similar to 2017’s Thelma, another film Vogt co-wrote with Trier. However, this time Vogt homes in on the perspective of children as their powers complicate the innocence of childhood with questions of morality. Here, there is no Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters to guide them along the fine line between good and evil. Instead, the film throws different life experiences at them and keenly observes as they attempt to discover themselves in the process.
The story takes place in a towering Norwegian apartment complex surrounded by woods. Over the summer, the area acts as a playground for children like Ida (Rakel Lenora Fløttum) and her older sister Anna (Alva Brynsmo Ramstad). Their dynamic is established early on when Ida pinches Anna, who is autistic and nonverbal, hard on the leg. She holds resentment for her sister, who receives all of their parents’ attention. In another scene, she displays further malevolence by placing broken glass in Anna’s shoe, knowing she’ll be able to get away with injuring her sister.
Ida befriends Ben (Sam Ashraf), a boy bullied by the older kids and mistreated by his mother. Ben warms to Ida and shows her his telekinetic abilities, which at this point remain relatively harmless, only involving moving light bottle caps around. She’s fascinated but not surprised, instead gleefully demonstrating her ability to bend her double-jointed elbows backwards. For a nine-year old, these are both superpowers within the realm of possibility. The pair spend their days playing in the woods together and dropping cats down stairwells to see if they’ll survive the fall.
Although some of the kids may seem cruel, Vogt gives each of them humanity. Like all children, much of their lives are dictated by the circumstances they are dealt. Ben has likely had to fend for himself for most of his life, making his attempts at vengeance against those that have wronged him understandable. Likewise, Aisha (Mina Yasmin Bremseth Asheim), a girl who can hear others’ thoughts including Anna’s, is protective of her friends and family as her mother is a single parent who struggles with the recent loss of Aisha’s father. Vogt’s empathy towards his characters is at the core of the gripping child actor performances while cinematographer Sturla Brandth Grøvlen’s camera often explores the world with low altitude shots almost as if to see everything through a child’s point of view. These elements bring about magnificent results and are certainly where the film is at its best.
Despite these strengths, The Innocents’ runtime is rather drawn out, with much of the plot following a predictable path. This causes its misguided casting choices to stand out. While the film makes an effort to cast people of color in prominent roles, Ida, the white protagonist, is the only character who grows throughout the film despite early demonstrations of her wrongdoings. In contrast, Ben does not receive this same treatment and instead goes down a path of darkness. Ben and Aisha, the two children of color, both live with single, struggling parents who oppose Ida and Anna’s seemingly perfect family unit. These choices were likely not intentional or perhaps, at a stretch, Vogt was attempting to get at the universality of childhood experiences regardless of class or race, but whatever the reasoning, what the film is trying to say here is unclear.
It’s a good thing that Vogt ends The Innocents with the same empathy for his characters with which he started. Instead of using black and white, Vogt chooses to paint his characters with shades of gray. There are no heroes or villains, and the film lacks any attempt at a happy ending or overall lesson. It’s simply capturing four kids trying to figure out their relationship with others and the world around them. To the film’s credit, it mostly succeeds at this, but it’s up to the audience whether it was all worth the effort.
Photo courtesy of IFC Midnight
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