Betrayed by Innocence (1986) Barry Bostwick, Lee Purcell, Cristen Kauffman, Isaac Hayes, Craig Richard Nelson, Joel Colodner, Thom Christopher, Paul Sorvino Movie Review

Betrayed by Innocence (1986)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Cristen Kauffman and Barry Bostwick in Betrayed by Innocence (1986)

A No Win Situation

Nick DeLeon (Barry Bostwick) was very much in love with Sharon (Lee Purcell) when they first met but years later, having got married and had children, things are very different as the children are leaving home with lives of their own, Sharon is always busy focusing on her career and has even started to belittle Nick's career as a documentary maker. Whilst at a party on his own Nick meets Marisa (Cristen Kauffman) who says she is a film student and he invites her to pop by where they are filming if she is ever in the area. When she does Nick invites her to the wrap party and they end up becoming involved with them ending up sleeping together in a motel room. What Nick doesn't know is that not only is Marisa only 16 years old but her father, Mike (Paul Sorvino), is an extremely protective detective leading to Nick finding himself charged with statutory rape when he discovers what has been going on.

The first half of "Betrayed by Innocence" feels like it belongs to a Harlequin movie as we watch Nick who is in an unhappy marriage finding love with a young woman who makes him feel young again. It even has that sort of romantic, playful music which makes you question where this is going as we become aware pretty quickly that not only is Marisa under age but her detective father is incredibly protective as he sees all the bad stuff day in day out. Heck there is even one of the cheesiest dad dance scenes you are likely to come across in a movie which makes you wonder why Marisa didn't run as quick as she could.

Paul Sorvino and Barry Bostwick in Betrayed by Innocence (1986)

But "Betrayed by Innocence" is not some romantic melodrama because of course the focus switches to what happens when Mike learns what is going on and wants to see Nick go to prison for sleeping with his daughter. The interesting thing is that the movie tries to cover a lot of areas from Nick not knowing Marisa was 16 to the fact she willingly went to his home. We also have some father daughter conflict as he is overly protective and becomes even worse following the discovery of what has gone on. We also see how Mike uses his position within the police department to put pressure on the D.A. to go after Nick for statutory rape despite him knowing there is no case. But there is still a romantic side to this as both Nick and Marisa can't stay apart despite all of the trouble they are in. What it means is that whilst you can guess some of the events which will happen in the movie you can't be entirely sure how the movie is going to end.

What this all boils down to is that "Betrayed by Innocence" is one of those movies which manages to be predictable yet not at the same time as it manages to mix both a dramatic situation with a romantic tone. This certainly makes it an interesting movie although not the sort of movie which once watched offers something to make you want to watch it again.


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