Recensioni de* critic*

Overall, this is a comic drama, and one way to sum it up would be that it’s not funny enough to be a great comedy and not coherent enough to be a strong drama. Still, it has freshness and all sorts of odd little surprises.

A droll French-language caper... [The Innocent] gathers a madcap momentum, in the way that really bad life choices are apt to do.

A frothy heist movie with an unexpectedly tender heart... [Garrel] orchestrates the kind of smooth-talking screwball antics that will probably be remade any day now with Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone.

The Innocent deftly mixes comic family melodrama with genre thrills in this pacy, emotive thriller with a killer cast... As a performer and director Garrel has proved himself adroit at a particular kind of comic pathos, and in The Innocent his skills in this department are put to especially good use.

[The Innocent] is a broad, enjoyable, lighthearted movie with a fair few not-insignificant plot holes, but a genuinely surprising storyline that keeps you guessing to the end.

Even if the outcome to their relationship is obvious from the get-go, Merlant and Garrel make engaging, reluctant partners-in-crime... The result, if you can get past some of its absurdities, is a slight, enjoyable, lightweight jaunt. Just don’t expect anything more.

The Innocent might have been a more nuanced film had it developed the platonic friendship between the two leads rather than accelerating the growth of romance between them, but their chemistry is fun... and sits harmoniously within the rest of the story

The Innocent is Garrel’s most enjoyable outing since turning director. It takes a frivolous idea and spins it into a witty and soulful story that also works as a love letter to Lyon and its gourmet reputation and an homage to the French comedy capers of the sixties.

While its unpredictability delivers sporadic laughs, The Innocent’s strongest weapon is its unexpected heart, which is reinforced by its solid performances.

It would be something of a fool’s errand to expect Garrel to step conclusively away from his artistic heritage and frankly, this fourth-generation new-wave style he’s developed, like a healthy coating of ivy around an old suburban home, is diverting in the utmost as it is. As they say, if it ain’t broque don’t fix it.

[The Innocent] is a slightly slipperier customer than a topline summary would suggest, with tonal shifts that shouldn’t work, but somehow do... Fans of the likes of Maren Ade’s Toni Erdmann or Alex van Warmerdam’s Borgman may recognize a kindred sensibility.

Playing out as a series of broad, hilarious setpieces (Garrel proving himself an adept comedian in just about every sense) that eventually merge into a more grounded heist movie, L’Innocent dodges expectations from beginning to end without devolving into incoherence... The cleanness with which Garrel executes his tonally complicated screenplay is undeniable