buygay.com

Review

We've got mixed emotions about this film – we're going to leave this one up to you. The messages in the film about pedophilia are not as cut and dried as most of society making Return to Innocence of interest.

There are three key characters in this dark tale. First is the 13-year-old boy Tommy. He was brought into New Horizons, a group home for abused boys after it was discovered that his mother made him the star of her porno movies – at nine years old. Four years later he's got his feet on the ground and he trusts adults again. All that changes when his counselor Jim brings him to his house for the weekend. Tommy and Jim have sex, but Jim leaves Tommy when he realizes the gravity of what he's done. Tommy gets upset about his being rejected and asks for the head of the house, Glen, to come pick him up. Glen picks him up and hears that Tommy is upset. On Monday morning Glen calls his counselor Jim to his office and asks to for the whole story. He hears that Tommy and Jim kissed, fondled, masturbated and had oral sex. He doesn't get upset about the sex until he hears that Jim rejected the boy in the morning and asked him to never tell anyone about what happened. Glen feels that this is the crime here, not the man-boy love. He's asks for Jim's resignation and launches an official investigation. The whole thing gets crazy when Glen asks Tommy about this and the boy freaks. He doesn't want to hurt Jim, as he loves him, so he accuses Glen of sexually abusing him. It's from there we get into a legal morass, which takes up quite a bit of the film.

The subject matter is ultra-controversial and the film presents a new take on the situation. It's very low budget and presents issues of quality, but we always enjoy looking at issues in a new light, even if we don't agree.

 -- Scott Cranin