Incendiary (2008/I)

Director:

Sharon Maguire

Writers:

Chris Cleave (book)
Sharon Maguire (screenplay)

Release Date:

2008 (UK)

Genre:

Drama | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

The truth can blow you apart.

Plot:

An adulterous woman's life is torn apart when her husband and infant son are killed in a suicide bombing at a soccer match. |

Cast

Michelle Williams	...	Young Mother
Ewan McGregor	...	Jasper Black
Matthew Macfadyen	...	Terrance
Sidney Johnston	...	The Boy
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jonathan Andrews	...	Policeman
Ehti Aslam
Sasha Behar	...	Bomber's Wife
Robin Berry	...	Dazed Supporter
Gavin Brocker	...	Detective Tony Jackson
Nicholas Courtney	...	Archbishop of Canterbury
Natalie Dormer
Chris Ellis	...	The Dead Son
Monty Fromant	...	Security Guard
Nicholas Gleaves	...	Lenny
Edward Hughes	...	Danny Walsh
Usman Khokhar	...	Bomber's Son
Chris Mansfield	...	Police Officer
Joe Marshall	...	Gary
Ricci McLeod
Brian Meggs	...	Supporter
Thomas Meggs	...	Supporter
Julie Rochford	...	Dazed Supporter
Enzo Squillino Jr.	...	Newsagent
Satu Suominen
Michael Thompson
Tola	...	Football Player / Supporter
Benjamin Wilkin	...	Policeman
Chris Wilson	...	CO19 Officer
Simon Wilson	...	Commuter on train

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Filming Locations:

London, England, UK

Company:

Aramid Entertainment Fund

Sharon Maguire should stick to comedy and not sappy melodrama

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I was at the premiere of this film last night at the Sundance Film Festival. It was obvious that Sharon was very nervous, but she was gracious and funny and I could see how that transferred to her film Bridget Jones's Diary which I loved.

This, however, couldn't be further removed from that. To use one of Sharon's own terms, as a friend put it, the whole film was "eggy". Overdone, pleading with the audience to cry for sympathy for the main character. I don't really even know where to start. The little boy was adorable and precocious, almost to the point of being cartoon-like. Michelle Williams' hangdog "I'm sad and smoking a cigarette" schtick soon became old.

The film starts out alright enough, with the setup of the husband who's always working, the connection between mother and son, etc. Suddenly she is in bed with the very on-point Ewan McGregor, and a bomb explodes at the soccer stadium where her husband and son are. This moment is good - frightening, shocking. But the heavy overlays of jaunting piano music and slow motion running or crying or whatever are so saturated that it's impossible to really connect.

As most of us know, symbolism is best when subtle and stripped down. Well be prepared to have it wacked over your head in this film. Her son has a stuffed bunny animal that he always carries, and after he's dead of course this becomes the representation of her son. They reference the bunny so many times that it's no longer a special memento. Once she starts stalking the son of one of the suicide bombers, it just fails to make sense any longer. She predictably bonds with the son out of nowhere (I literally leaned over and said "She's going to buy him a cricket bat" to a friend after the boy mentioned his dad was supposed to buy him one for his birthday...and lo and behold, she did) and then suddenly there's a standoff at the train station where she gets apparently shot in the head and has not a scratch to show for it.

An additional thing that bothered me is her character apparently has all these amazing traits that men are dying for. Ewan seems suddenly "turned around" from a womanizing yuppie telling her that she's just so different from everyone he knows. Her husband's old boss tells her she's an amazing woman and spews ridiculous romantic crap about "laying in a caravan with the dust particles in the air" or "taking all the hundreds of pieces of your broken heart and putting it back together". What is so remarkable about this woman? She's just gone through a terrible loss, but that has nothing to do with her character or personality. Nothing shown tells me that she is deserving of this attention.

This combined with the in and out narration, apparently letters dedicated to Osama Bin Laden, the hot-air balloon with the picture of her son, the underuse of the engaging Ewan McGregor character, the random relationship with the bomber's son, and the obvious "Oscar nomination" scene of Michelle Williams screaming "My baby! My baby!" all comes together for one totally over the top melodrama that leaves the viewer with no real connection to anyone. If they had stripped it down by about 90% it would be watchable.

It does make me sad that I found this film so unenjoyable, because it was obvious that the director was very nervous and had put her soul and time into it's making. However, I don't see any way to fix the many glaring issues there are. Instead of seeing this, I would recommend popping in Bridget Jones's Diary and enjoying Sharon Maguire in her best medium.