Incendiary is a 2008 British drama film portraying the aftermath of a terrorist attack at a football match. It is directed by Sharon Maguire and stars Michelle Williams as a young mother, Ewan McGregor as Jasper, and Matthew Macfadyen as Terrance. It is about an adulterous woman's life that is torn apart when her husband and four-year-old son are killed in a suicide bombing at an Arsenal F.C. match. It is based on the 2005 novel of the same name by Chris Cleave.
Plot
Mainly the book and the film are about this mother’s love for her child and the loss of that child. There is also a policeman, who is essentially a good man who wants to do the right thing but can’t because he’s got an unseen enemy and he has to make decisions that he wouldn’t normally make and it gets him into trouble. Then there’s a journalist who kind of represents the liberal thinkers in society. All liberal thinkers have had to reassess that attitude since 9/11 because the results of free association, free movement and free expression have put us all in danger in many ways, so everybody’s had to rethink their position. They represent the world before 9/11 and 7/7 and then what happened afterwards, so that’s what it’s about. |
A young woman (Michelle Williams) is married to bomb-disposal officer Lenny (Nicholas Gleaves); they have a 4-year old son (Sidney Johnston).
While the young mother has sex with reporter Jasper (Ewan McGregor) a terrorist attack by six suicide bombers at a football match kills Lenny, the little boy and about 1000 others, on what becomes known as May Day. Jasper and Lenny's boss Terrance (Matthew Macfadyen), in charge of the anti-terrorist division, both try to comfort the mother; both are also romantically interested in her.
Through Jasper's investigations the mother finds out the identity of one of the terrorists. She befriends his teenage son (Usman Khokhar), who only knows that his father is missing since May Day. When he finds out from a newspaper he panics and runs, causing the police to suspect him to be a terrorist; when he wants to take something out of his pocket they think he has a gun or wants to trigger a bomb; they shoot at him, but he is unharmed; the mother, who tried to protect him, is hit, but not severely. Later the teenage boy and his mother apologize to the other mother for the participation of their father/husband in the killings.
Terrance confesses to the mother that he knew that a suicide attack was going to happen and could have stopped it, but he did not in order to be able to continue the investigations; he did not know in which stadium it would happen, and also thought it would be of a smaller scale, with only one terrorist, and about 50 people killed. After learning about the upcoming attack he cancelled his own plans to attend the match, but although he knew Lenny and his son would be going, he did not warn them. This shocks the mother.
Sometimes the mother is confused, thinking that nothing has happened to her son. Another time, for therapeutic reasons she writes a letter addressed to Osama bin Laden, who is assumed to be responsible for the attack.
The mother is pregnant from Jasper and has another son.
Cast
Production
Filming began on 26 March 2007 in London, England. The first filmed scenes were shot on location in Northampton Square and the Brunswick Estate in Islington, North London. Filming is also took place at Leyton Orient F.C.'s home ground, 'The Matchroom Stadium'. Filming continued in St Albans, in particular in and around the Cathedral and St Albans School.
Scenes were filmed during the week of 30 April 2007 at Westminster Lodge in St Albans.
Reception
Generally, the film received poor reviews. Tom Charity, after viewing the film at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, gave it one star out of five and called it an "ambitious/opportunistic effort that misses the mark, from the one-dimensional characters to the craven plotting and sentimental tone."[2]
Philip French called it an "ambitious British picture on an urgent topical subject [that] is torpedoed by a poor script."[3]
Time Out London gave it two stars out of six, saying "there are so many things wrong with writer-director Sharon Maguire’s first film since Bridget Jones’ Diary in 2001 that it's hard to know where to start, but the fatal problem is that this is a film with an identity crisis"; the film at times seems like a "study of guilt and grief" and at other times a "conspiracy thriller" but "ends up being a compendium of bizarre diversions, most of which are utterly surplus to the film’s half-cocked desire to stick with the experience and emotions of its main character."[4]
References
External links
