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Comedy Of Innocence

2003, Movie, NR, 100 mins

Comedy Of Innocence: Review

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Iconoclastic Chilean filmmaker Raul Ruiz curbs his melodramatic inclinations in this cerebral thriller, which wrings most of its chills from the specter of psychological impressionability. Shy, eight-year-old Camille (Nils Hugon) ejoys working on his video diary and spending time with classmate Alexandre (Bruno Marengo), who has never met Camille's parents, Ariane and Pierre (Isabelle Huppert, Denis Podalydes). Camille is also obsessed with Paul, who could be either an imaginary playmate or the ghost of a child who drowned two years ago. On this ninth birthday, Camille announces that Ariane isn't his real mother and begs her to return him to an unfamiliar part of town, one that he's never visited but of which he has a thorough knowledge of the area. Camille then declares one apartment his "true home" and embraces its occupant, Isabella (Jeanne Balibar), as his mother. To Ariane's stupefaction, Isabella claims that Camille is indeed her long-lost son. Afraid of losing her child to this delusion, Ariane invites Isabella into her home. Her brother-in-law, Serge (Charles Berling), recommends that she pursue legal avenues but Ariane instead indulges Camille's delusion. Adding to the situation's complexity is the fact that Isabelle had a son named Paul who died; could Paul have possessed Camille and wiped away Isabelle's memory of the tragedy that robbed her of her child? Alexandre hands over Camille's videotapes to Ariane, who searches them for a clue key to Camille's behavior; Camille continues to behave as though Ariane and Pierre were usurpers. Ariane is desperate for an explanation — supernatural or realistic — and keeps desperate Isabella close at hand. Would Isabella resort to drastic tactics to keep her son's spirit alive, even if it meant persuading Camille to revisit the scene of Paul's accident and relive it? With its Twilight Zone ironies and its superficial resemblance to THE SIXTH SENSE (1999), this mystery about the essence of parenting is only coincidentally a suspense film. Ruiz pits two superb actresses against each other in a maternal tug of war and young Hugon is astonishing as the child they both covet. leave a comment --Robert Pardi
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