Incendies

Composite Score: 84.33

Starring: Lubna Azabal, Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin, Maxim Gaudette, Rémy Girard, Majida Hussein, Nabil Koni, Allen Altman, Mohamed Majd, and Abdelghafour Elaaziz

Director: Denis Villeneuve

Writers: Denis Villeneuve and Valérie Beaugrand-Champagne

Genres: Drama, Mystery, Thriller, War

MPAA Rating: R for some strong violence and language

Box Office: $6.79 million worldwide

Why should you Watch This Film?

                Incendies is Denis Villeneuve’s film adaptation of Wajdi Mouawad’s play of the same name about twins who seek to unravel the mystery of their mother’s past after her death and the reading of her will. The film stars Lubna Azabal in the role of Nawal Marwan, mother of the twins Jeanne (Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin) and Simon (Maxim Gaudette). It’s a triple character study set against the backdrop of violence in the Middle East (implicitly the Lebanese civil war) and the family drama of unknown fathers and brothers. Beautifully shot, well-written, and compellingly acted, the film was nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and currently sits at #109 on IMDB’s Top 250 Movies and 56th in the Letterboxd Top 250. There’s a lot to love about this film that plays well in its genres without ever letting any of them overpower the others.

Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?

                I feel almost like Peter Griffin saying this, but I did not care for the ending of Incendies. I think the whole other 98% of the film is excellent, but the way the story concludes left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Maybe I’ve got more to learn about forgiveness or parenting or family to truly appreciate the whole thing, but it felt like too clean of an ending for as messy of a story as it had been to that point. I’m really working not to spoil it all here, and it’s not even the revelations at the climax that have me so put out. It’s the way everyone reacts to the revelations that leave me less than satisfied. It reminds me a lot of the endings to Villeneuve’s Prisoners or Enemy in that it leaves you not fully satisfied, but it differs from those films in that you do fully know and understand what has happened. There’s not some whistle in the background or spider in the corner; it’s just over, and you’re not totally sure if you like how any of it turned out. I don’t know. Maybe the ending will work better for you, but I just wish it had broken differently.

So wait, why should you Watch This Film?

                Unfulfilled as I felt at the film’s ending, Incendies is a truly great film for the rest of its runtime. I think it might contain the single best shot of Villeneuve’s entire filmography. With the likes of Roger Deakins, Greig Fraser, and Bradford Young directing the photography of his more recent films, you’d think that his best shot would be in one of those, but André Turpin gets the prize of being the cinematographer for Incendies who shot the flaming bus scene. That whole portion of the film is full of emotion and thematic implications and character development, but the moment when Nawal falls to her knees in the desert, backlit by the flames of an engulfed bus, sends chills through the audience and leaves them haunted for the rest of the film by the turn that happens there on the ground. The rest of the film contains multitudes of powerful and beautiful shots, but nothing comes close to that moment in the film’s second act.

                Additionally, Incendies tells its story in a deeply engaging way that dabbles in more genres than just family drama, which its synopsis would lead you to believe. By jumping back and forth between the twins’ exploration of their mother’s homeland and past and Nawal’s own experiences in those places and times, the film gets to take on the air of a mystery thriller flavored with scenes of wartime violence, tragedy, and espionage. While there may not be any chase scenes or firefights, the whole energy of the film from start to finish is one of being on edge, not fully knowing what might be coming around the corner, constantly waiting for the boot to fall or the revelation to come. It’s a well-crafted nonlinear narrative, made even better by the actors at its center. Azabal plays Nawal across the many years of her life with gut-wrenching sincerity, committing to keeping the audience gripped even as the character commits to her many promises. Likewise, the performers filling the roles of her children – Désormeaux-Poulin and Gaudette – each present their own interpretation of what a person raised by such a woman could be, expanding her character even as they inhabit their own. The film works its whole being toward the end of painting a rich and detailed picture of Nawal’s life and family, succeeding beautifully in letting you know exactly how she got to where she ended up.

                Adapting Mouawad’s play of the same name, Incendies benefits from a strong nonlinear story that gives each of its three main characters plenty of space to play in the haunting and war-torn world of the film that Villeneuve and Turpin worked hard to create on the screen, warranting it a spot solidly among the greats. Even though I did not love how everything wrapped up, the journey to get there was greatly rewarding and merits watching if you haven’t already. This film is currently available to rent on most streaming services for anyone who needs to catch it.