Incendiary Blu-ray Edition
After the bombing of a football stadium in England a wife looks to find out why her husband and son died and a reporter looks for something more.
Film making 8/25
Cinematography 10/25
Audio 18/25
Bonus Features 2/25
Total 38/100
A young mother, played by Michelle Williams but never named in the film, has a husband Lenny who works for the bomb disposal unit in London. Her son is four years old and she has this unshakeable image of the perfect day with her son, him running on the beach playing in the surf.
Their world is shattered when the son and husband go to a football game, soccer for us Americans, and six terrorists blow themselves up killing over a thousand people. While the young mother was having a first time affair with a young reporter named Jasper they see the bombing on the television and rush to the scene.
The young mother is injured in the aftermath of the bombing and wakes in the hospital with some minor wounds with the reporter asking questions for her. The reporter, played by Ewan McGregor, finds out who one of the terrorists were and tells the mother so she goes to see the terrorist’s wife and son.
The young mother follows the son several times and eventually talks with him after following him around all day. They create a sort of friendship and talk with each other, never coming to terms with what has happened as the son does not know his father was a terrorist.
His mother has told him that his father left and will not be coming back but the young mother has also told him her son and husband are gone but not killed. Terrence, Lenny’s boss is trying to also befriend the young mother as he feels guilty about his association with the terrorists.
When the young mother meets the terrorist’s son and they spend part of another day together she goes to take him on a train ride and while she is getting tickets he sees a paper showing his father is one of the bombers. The son runs away from the woman who races after, alerting the police that something is up and they end with the son against a barrier at the end of the platforms with her between the son and the police.
With weapons trained on the son and police everywhere thinking another attack is playing out they order the son to freeze and she also tells him not to move. He believes his father is not responsible and tries to show her something in his pocket and the police fire just as she moves in the way of the shot.
The police officer tries to pull his shot away only to wound the young mother on the side of her head and sending her to the hospital again. She awakes with Terrence at her bedside telling her everything will be alright and the reporter waiting in the hall.
Terrence talks with the reporter and tells him the young mother will never be a couple with Jasper and the young mother because he reported on the events of the terrorists. Jasper is the reporter who broke the story about the terrorist and other events involved with the bombing but is also trying to continue his relationship with the young mother.
Terrence takes the young mother to the beach and they spend the night together but she asks him about being at the stadium when she finds his name on the list of those that were there. He tells her what he knows, the authorities knew some sort of attack was possible but not that it would be as large as it was.
He tells the young mother that it was decided at the highest levels not to warn the public or even all the police as they were trying to catch the terrorists. Terrence has been distraught over knowing he was in some small part responsible for not warning her husband that they should not go to the game that day.
The young mother leaves and returns home where she starts to hallucinate that her son is fine and she spends weeks secluded in her apartment. She goes out one day to steal some food and meets the wife and son of the terrorist who have been looking for her.
The mother apologizes for what her husband did and the young mother runs home to get back to her boy only to see for the first time in a few months that he was never there. She runs to the top of the building where a large balloon is tethered with her sons picture and the words In Memoriam.
The city has had dozens of balloons floating over it for victims of the terrorist attack just as they did during World War II for defense. The young mother hears her son’s voice and remembers a time when her son asked about World War II and London burning.
She comes to grips with her son’s death and has a new life with her newborn son from her affair with either Jasper or Terrence; they never say who the father is. Incendiary was pretty good but confusing at times and not really all that great a film in the end.
When she sort of lost it and thought her son had returned they played this part out quite awhile with her getting visibly pregnant and you could see weeks were going by. No one was ever checking in on her or finding out why she was not paying her bills but she finally comes to grips with her situation when the mother and son visit her.
The film was played out for all it was worth regarding the mother’s memories and feelings but sort of dragged along at times, especially during her sort of hallucinations with her son. I really think they could have done better with the drama of the attack and moving things along more but they did not and the film is not that great a movie.
The Blu-ray edition comes with the film in high definition video with Dolby Digital Surround Sound that are both very good and almost nothing else. The Blu-ray disc contains some trailers and some still galleries of the film but nothing else in the way of extras so this version really has little going for it.
The Blu-ray version without any bonus features to speak of you really gives little reason to bother with the Blu-ray edition. This would be a title possibly worth renting over a purchase if you are interested but you would not really be missing out on anything if you skipped it altogether.