The Innocents follows four children who become friends during the summer holidays. Out of sight of the adults, they discover they have hidden powers. While exploring their newfound abilities in the nearby forests and playgrounds, their innocent play takes a dark turn and strange things begin to happen.
Even though a vast majority of the film's most crucial elements take place out of sight of the adults, The Innocents is a look at the various methods of parental nurturing and fostering the ability for the children to become their best selves. Three vastly disparate families with different ethnicities, backgrounds, and social situations yields an environment for conflicting approaches to the kid's newfound abilities. For every groan and eyeroll for a superhero movie that spouts about the responsibility that great power brings, this film is a direct response to what happens when power is bestowed upon people too young to fully comprehend its capacity and potential. The Innocents is a story about exactly that; the loss of innocence as unchecked power is given an environment to manifest and fester, and the unfortunate consequences that follow.
Starring Rakel Lenora Fløttum, The Innocents starts as an analysis of Ida, a girl moving with her family to a new town. The idea of neglect is the central issue as the audience is privy to Ida's treatment of her older sister Anna (Ramstad), who lives with autism, demanding more care and attention from their parents. Fløttum as Ida is an absolute nightmare of a kid, inflicting any number of horrible acts upon her unsuspecting sister and her streak of cruelty is shown time and again. Fløttum delivers a magnificent performance that takes a full arc throughout the course of the film with a wide array of conflicting emotions that play out in both verbal and nonverbal cues. Ben, the first new kid she meets played by Sam Ashraf, veers in the opposite trajectory as Ida; after the initial bond is created, it's clear to see that the same dark current of cruelty Ida possesses also runs through Ben yet stemming from different circumstances. Ashraf is brilliant as the tortured young boy; with cold eyes and a colder demeanor, Ben's menace is possibly the creepiest aspect of the film.
Also starring Alva Brynsmo Ramstad as Anna, Ida's sister, the actress tasked with the hardest role in the film: playing a non-verbal autistic character who slowly comes into her own as the kid's powers develop. While a neurotypical actress to play an autistic character could be seen as problematic, Vogt handles the characterization deftly, making sure Ramstad doesn't veer into a cliche of the illness, a la Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man. With the material she's given, and the direction from Vogt, Ramstad turns in a stellar performance, transitioning into an awakening and awareness that is both stirring and heartbreaking. Rounding out the cast of kids that gain these strange powers is Aisha, played by Mina Yasmin Bremseth Asheim, who spends most of her time communing with Anna. Asheim, possibly the youngest, but by far the wisest of the group, is an old soul stuck in a young person's body. Asheim plays the role with an extreme clarity, the heart of the group that is the first to push back against Ben's whims. Aisha's bond with Anna is one of the sweetest aspects of the movie, facilitating not just a change in Anna but also a change in Ida's relationship with Anna.
Directed by Eskil Vogt, who spent a majority of his career co-writing movies with director Joachim Trier (to include the 2021 darling The Worst Person in the World), The Innocents marks Vogt's shift into directing for himself. Starting with this simple, well thought out low-stakes film, Vogt shows a keen eye for mood and atmosphere, pulling incredibly haunting performances from his cast of young children. From a writing standpoint, Vogt's ability to knit three different familial stories into an overarching theme of being a product of environment is subtly and superbly handled. Directing wise, the filmmaker appears nearly fully formed after spending the better part of two decades with Trier, an accomplished director in his own right. Here, Vogt manages to unravel the supernatural mystery with a pacing that keeps the viewer on the hook to find out who will be left standing at the film's end.
Overall, The Innocents is one of the more sinister movies to be released in the United States this year. The unsettling creepiness Vogt manages to convey compliments the equally creepy performances from the actors. With clean, often visually arresting cinematography, sensible low budget effects, and a quiet, thoughtful examination of the nature of family, the movie is a quiet gem hidden amongst the raucous, explosion filled blockbusters that rule the summer.
