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Echoes of Innocence Our rating: Your rating: 1 2 3 4 Your Comments: see all MPAA rating: PG-13 (for thematic issues) Genre: Romance, Thriller Theater release: September 09, 2005 by New World Pictures Directed by: Nathan Todd Sims Runtime: 1 hour 57 minutes Cast: Sara Simmonds (Sarah), Jake McDorman (Dave), Natalie Jones (Beth), Matt Vodvarka (Alec), Nadir Akram (Robert) Related: Talk About It/Family Corner

Billed as a thriller about teen sexual purity and spiritual warfare, this tedious film is saddled with a muddled script and ridiculous plot developments—that is, if it can be called a "plot" at all.

While funnyman Steve Carell brings in the big box office bucks as a 40-Year-Old Virgin, Sara Simmonds now hits the big screen—albeit on a limited basis—as a slightly younger virgin. Simmonds plays the role of Sarah in the new movie Echoes of Innocence, about a high school student with an unnatural fixation on Joan of Arc and whose classmates call her "Virg" because of her commitment to abstinence until she weds her true love.

Sara Simmonds in the lead role as Sarah

Her true love's name happens to be Chris. As middle schoolers, Sarah and Chris promise to marry one another on Sarah's 18th birthday. It's an adorable little case of puppy love, but it abruptly turns to misery when Chris shows up at Sarah's window one night and tells her that he has to leave her and asks her to promise to save herself for him. Then he speeds away in a limo.

But don't get your hopes up; this isn't one of those taut thrillers where mysterious things happen but are not explained until the final act. In Echoes of Innocence, the mysterious things are never really explained. You'll have to make up your own reason why Chris had to leave Sarah so suddenly; the film never tells us why.

Not that the story ends with Chris' departure. Young Sarah eventually grows up into a high school student, and she is perpetually haunted by strange visions and her aforementioned obsession with Joan of Arc. She lives with her senile grandmother but spends a good chunk of her time lighting candles and praying at an old abandoned church building. She is eventually contacted by an investigative reporter, David (Jake McDorman), and sparks of romance start to fly, in spite of Sarah's vow to Chris.

A Joan of Arc statue provides inspiration for Sarah to remain pure

Oh, and there's also a creepy, teenage sexual deviant who wants to sleep with Sarah and kill everyone else in the school. Thankfully, Sarah is protected by a random bull that comes completely out of nowhere to protect her and her church of solitude. And, David has a secret of his own, one that will likely occur to most viewers in the film's first half but is nevertheless shockingly ridiculous when it is revealed in the final five minutes.

Do you feel lost? Well, watching the film won't help matters. First-time writer/director Nathan Todd Sims has some great ideas and a noble goal—to craft a teen thriller about sexual purity and spiritual warfare—but he's working with a script muddled by inconsistencies, contrivances, and flat-out absurdities.

Unfortunately, that's not the film's only problem. Sims apparently has little faith in his audience; he insults our intelligence over and over with heavy-handed direction and subtle-as-gravel storytelling. For instance, the presence of the mysterious villain is always summoned by the sudden swelling of thundering, ominous music—kinda like Darth Vader's "Imperial March," only really irritating. And, when the same character mysteriously disappears, his vanishing is heralded by a hissing, snake-like sound. (I wonder if that symbolizes anything?)

Jake McDorman plays Dave, a reporter

Some films benefit greatly from the use of the mute button; alas, Echoes of Innocence isn't much to look at, either. The cinematography is bland and boring, and the visual effects are the stuff of made-for-TV movies. In fact, there are many things about this film that just seem soo Lifetime.

The actors are obviously given precious little to work with, and the director's lack of subtlety rubs off on most of them. Simmonds and McDorman both give passable performances, but they occasionally drift into The Land of Overacting, where most of their costars seem to have taken up permanent residence. Actress Julie Rankin is especially over the top as Sarah's irresponsible mother; but then, her character is the most poorly written of the bunch, an outrageously corny caricature that toes the line of audience manipulation.

Looking for divine inspiration—or perhaps a better script

Echoes of Innocence is hyped as "a sexy new teen movie—without the sex!" That's a rather inane statement, and it really isn't even true. References to sex and virginity abound (though all are tasteful and appropriate to the story), and there are two scenes that rather obviously suggest sexuality. Perhaps the tagline is meant to reference the film's pro-abstinence message, but even that gets lost in the messy, convoluted plot.

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