Here's your recipe for instant cinematic genius: a melodrama about
the tragic personal consequences of international terrorism - written
and directed by the director of Bridget Jones' Diary. Oh, by the way -
she has no previous credits for fiction writing.
The less said about
this, the better. Watching this is like watching a fourth grade play
about the holocaust. You have to admire the ambition and good
intentions, but you have to look away in embarrassment when it
descends into a cheesefest. The plot and dialogue are embarrassing
enough, but the capper is that several of
the sub-plots just seem to disappear in an abrupt ending. Did they
just run out of film?
The history of the project has been riddled with tragedy. The novel, which
is about a terrorist act on a 9/11 scale in London, hit the newsstands on the
very day of the London subway bombings. Then the movie premiered at Sundance
on the day Heath Ledger died. Given Ledger's status in the film community, his
death would have been distracting enough if he had no connection to the film
at all, but as it turns out, Ledger is the father of Michelle Williams' baby,
and she is the star of this film.
Williams is the film's only real plus, but that's a substantial plus. I had
no idea she had this kind of talent. Her performance is spectacularly good, as
good as or better than the female performances nominated for this year's
Oscar. She might even have earned that nomination because 2008 was a year with
few spectacular scene-stealing performances, but Incendiary was not eligible
for Oscar consideration. It screened at Sundance and Cannes and had a brief
theatrical run in the UK in 2008, but it never appeared in any theaters
in the USA.
If you are not familiar with our grading system, you need to
read the
explanation, because the grading is not linear. For example, by
our definition, a
C is solid and a C+ is a VERY good movie. There are very few Bs
and As. Based on our descriptive system, this film is a:
C-
Awful misfire of a movie, but I graded it C- because people
may be interested in the three
great performances: one by Michelle Williams, the other two by
her breasts.
