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.

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.

The thing I abhor most about selecting an unfamiliar movie from the rental or bargain bins is being lied to by the copywriters who decorate the DVD case with descriptions that have nothing to do with the movie. This film was the last straw and I will no longer choose movies I know nothing about based on the cover blurbs.I was in the mood for a thriller - the most prominent word on the DVD case - and the promise of a gripping terrorist theme with a woman at the center of a police investigation was right up my alley. Instead, I was presented with a somber, slow moving, often disjointed story with weak character development and periodic attempts at artistic visuals. Though all of the acting was very good, it did not make up for the empty plot tangents that dragged down the pace nor did it improve the frequent sappy dialog.This movie is one long whine about a lonely woman's grief and guilt, a supposedly very ordinary woman who nevertheless is the object of desire of many men and who has not even one relative or friend in the world. Despite the hopeful ending, a sad movie that really doesn't take you anywhere or reveal any new insights means I've wasted my time. Only 2 out of 10 stars for the acting and the cinematography.

This story begins with the voice of young woman living in London's East End telling us how she looks from her apartment into what remains of a row of older, well kept houses across the road, with envy. As it turns out, she is the mother of a little boy that seems to be her main purpose in living. The husband has a demanding job as a bomb diffuser, a dangerous job, indeed. The husband, an avid soccer fan, decides to take the boy to an important match. Little do they know the stadium is targeted for a terrorist bomb.As the husband and son go to the match, this lady is singled out by a seedy journalist that happens to live in one of the same houses she admires from afar. Little seems to stand in the way of a sexual session at her place where her man and son are away. As the couple is engaging in torrid sex, she overhears about the bombing at the stadium. The incident will play heavy on her mind when guilt and regret take her peace of mind.Based on a novel by Chris Cleave, the film evidently came out around the time when London suffered real terrorist attacks where people died and were injured. We cannot imagine what possessed Sharon Maguire, a director involved with light comedy to undertake the adaptation of the book. The result is an uneven movie that ultimately does not satisfy.The main attraction for this viewer was the cast. Michelle Williams, a fine actress otherwise, does what she can in a role that does not add anything to her career. Ewan McGregor, who was also paired with Ms. Williams in "Deception", is not too successful with the newspaper man he is supposed to portray. Matthew Macfadyen is completely wasted in a role that is so ambiguous to make any sense.