The Innocent

Abel's mother is in her sixties and marries a man she met while volunteering in a prison. Abel will not accept it; he is certain the man is using her. After his release Michel opens a flower shop and appears to be building a decent life. Abel starts following him and finds himself in the middle of a plan to rob a lorry. The subject is not crime but a son unable to accept his mother's happiness. Abel lost his wife and has not put the grief down; his mother starting again reads to him as betrayal. The film says so plainly and ties the robbery strand to that feeling. The form changes genre and does it with surprising softness. The first half is family comedy, the second a crime film, and between them sits a long scene inside a car. In it, two people improvise a fake declaration of love to buy time, and the film reaches its best there. The source is the director's own life. Louis Garrel has said the starting point was his mother marrying a man in prison. The film won in several categories at the French César awards. Garrel plays Abel, Roschdy Zem plays Michel, Anouk Grinberg the mother and Noémie Merlant her friend. Who it is for: viewers who like French genre mixing and crime comedy in a light register. Who it is not for: anyone expecting suspense; the robbery is deliberately inept and unthreatening.