Carlo Salvadori I'm going to start this review by making an effort in being generous and understanding, pointing out, that a possible reason for the galactic difference between the novel and the motion picture, is that the former was written one year before the actual terrorist attack on London on July the seventh 2005, while the latter was shot four years after, which could explain the impossibility to maintain certain features of the novel, which I am going to further analise in a second. Having specified that I now feel free to unleash the beast. First a plot summary as brief as possible: A working class woman, with an over the top personality, portrayed as a sort of Bridget Jones epigone, has her husband and her four year old son killed in a suicide bombing attack at the "Emirates Stadium". This is the only snippet the movie and the novel share; Afterwards they take two totally different directions. The book depicts a dismal, dark, gloomy, bleak , post apocalyptic setting, from the point of view of the female protagonist, in the form of a letter addressed to Osama Bin Laden. Chris Cleave, a Guardian columnist, literally paints pictures with his words, showing a society in decay, with particular concern about class conflict and government deceptions. Some claim that the only merit of the movie is to show the place where the book protagonist lives; that is only partially true, due to the colourful and imaginative writing of the novel, which is more than sufficient for the reader to form a picture in his head. The book also features modern,highly twisted and thrilling eroticism, which is the reason for this review's title. The novel follows the rules established by the late and great J. G. Ballard in his 1973 milestone in the history of modern literature, "The Atrocity Exhibition". Ballard, who worked for BBC at that time, and must be considered as one of the founders of British contemporary media, highlighted a sick connection, between catastrophes such as atomic explosions or car accidents and the release of sexual energy. Of course in the novel the perspective is turned upside down, the woman reminiscences images of the bombing while finding herself in sex related situations, but the connection is exactly just the very same. The film does not cover any of these aspects: Politics, Society and twisted eroticism are almost completely neglected, and replaced by a sappy soap operistic piece of trash, which makes Michael Bay's "Pearl Harbour" shine as a Stanley Kubrick motion picture. The doom setting of the novel is replaced by the brightiest, most childish, shallow and dull cinematography I have ever seen. The editing, especially towards the second half, is completely random. The soundtrack was probably written by some British equivalent of those self nominated, self righteous Italian "pop classical artists" such as Ludovico Einaudi or Giovanni Allevi. An unhonourable mention, concerning the acting and then we're done. Matthew Macfayden stars as Terrence Butcher, the head of the anti- terrorism task force. His acting can be compared to a first grade child, reading the list of the grocery store, or to a freshly retired ski alpine world champion turned into acting for the first and last time in his life. Fortunately they probably digitally removed the paper from where he was reading his lines in post production. To sum up, if you have already read the novel, stay far away from the movie, otherwise the book is a must read, therefore I highly recommend it.

Amy Lodholz Michelle Williams goes English? OK, OK her accent wasn't bad - but let me ask you this - is she really pretty enough to make Ewan McGregor obsess for months? Maybe; but Mr. Darcy (actor Matthew McFayden) too? Wait a minute...I need to come to terms with something before we can continue. This isn't easy for me, but it's way overdue. Ahem...Michelle Williams is a now a...real actress. That's right; the ugly girl even Pacey didn't like in Dawson's Creek is now in every movie everywhere. It's not just the absurd quantity of roles she's getting that irks me, but their greatness as well. From Shutter Island to Take This Waltz to Brokeback Mountain the girl has been nailing parts for years, dammit. And well....she's not exactly ruining these movies, but needless to say I'm not what you call a fan. She does have a great pout face though - I'll give her that. OK - back to Incendiary (and who knows how she weaseled her way into this British film).****SPOILER ALERT**** Incendiary dares to take on themes of grief and the-will-to-survive through a somewhat original lens - which I'll credit to the female director - Sharon Maguire. Lower-class Williams (whose character is unnamed - which is just...not clever) and her little boy are two peas in a pod. There's a husband too, but he's not important - to her, or the audience. She's doinking this other bloke named Jasper (Ewan McGregor) when a terrorist attack kills her son and husband while at a soccer game. It would of killed Jasper too, but he stayed behind to doink. Now Terrence (Mr. Darcy) rolls in - he too has drank the Williams' Kool-Aid and can't get enough of her pouty little lower lip and wrinkled brow. Cut to more flashbacks, some grief-driven delusionment - a side-plot with the bomber's son and wife - and then....a baby? Yep. There's one thing Incendiary did right - the element of surprise. I really could not guess where they were taking this story from beginning to end. Having Maguire at the helm did help maximize the truly touching scenes between mother and son and those do, to some extent help draw in the audience.The trick with a good tragedy is to provide a film's characters equal opportunities to gain peace through their experiences. In movies, tradegy needs to serve some kind of a purpose - or it too closely mirrors real-life and leaves viewers unsatisfied. Incendiary had potential to come full circle for Williams and McGregor and that's what Maguire was really pushing for too - but it's like she changed her mind at the last minute and instead of having Jasper inside the delivery room while Williams gives birth she sticks him outside instead. Now what kind of peace is that? Closing loose-ends is of the utmost importance in good film-making and with Jasper left all forlorn-like, I'm afraid this movie just isn't worth it...and I say this excluding all Michelle Williams' reservations previously mentioned.Incendiary: Used or adapted for setting property on fire.

secondtake Incendiary (2008)A kind of British version of 9/11 that is interesting for its vision of a London-based terrorist disaster, but which is overwrought, sentimental, and sensational. It tries to temper this by making the heroine moodily (deeply) unhappy in her adultery (or unhappy enough to be adulterous), and by having the resulting relationship take on surprising seriousness. And this is where the movie has some interest. I'm not sure Michelle William's role as the mother and bereaved is exceptional any more than Ewan McGregor is as the interloper playboy turned sensitive (and who has a really minor role). Both seem like functionary clichés. It's a serious movie overall, and increasingly sad. But it's loaded with tricks to make it catchy, including the whole unconvincing second half where an investigation takes place against unlikely odds.The music is overbearing (drippy strings and piano), and the manipulations almost cheap (stuffed animals, pictures and movies of loved ones), almost like a quickie made-for-TV affair. Which is too bad because there are other aspects that are moving. It's a good idea to have the British visit this and try to empathize through a movie this way. A giveaway to its motivations (and those of the director Sharon Maguire) is a voice-over at the end, as a baby is being born, that is a direct plea to Osama Bin Laden to stop training people to be violent killers. We all wish that would be so. So if this movie is just for Osama, fine. For the rest of us, it's nearly unbearably trite and shameless.

jamalhugo The story of a woman grieving over the loss of her husband and son, seems like a story that should not be told, it felt like every scene was just watching her crying and having flashbacks. On the other hand, scenes were very well done, and clear at some points, very good special effects too. I have to say though, this is by far the worst movie I have seen, or at least, I can recall seeing. The whole story looks like repetition, and then the mystery to be revealed of how everything happened is very badly done, it is easily guessed, not in any way clever, and pointless. I do not recommend this movie to anyone, it is appalling.