Paul Cox's movie is a deeply felt, intelligent drama, if sometimes very genteel in its pacing and dialogue, about two elderly people who meet up 50 years after they first enjoyed a passionate affair, and fall in love all over again. Julia Blake plays Claire, a refined and elegant beauty whiling away the rest of her life in a stagnant marriage to John (Terry Norris). Then she receives a letter from Andreas, her first love, played by Charles "Bud" Tingwell; they reignite an unapologetically sensual romance.

For the first half-hour, it has something of the manner of a TV movie, but Innocence slowly accumulates in seriousness and power. Andreas and Claire's first lovemaking as old people comes after Andreas has been legally - and traumatically - required to witness the breaking up of his wife's grave when the cemetery has been sold off for real estate: a very bizarre episode. From there, Cox explores the pain their liaison causes - especially to Claire's husband John, whose fierce, buzzard-like face is creased in uncomprehending rage. There is a vertiginous sense that this fleeting, fractured moment of love a lifetime ago was the only thing that had been real for them, and that the decades they have spent apart have been meaningless. A serious, worthwhile film.