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Incendiary

  • 2008
  • Tous publics
  • 1h 36m
IMDb RATING
5.8/10
9.2K
YOUR RATING
Ewan McGregor and Michelle Williams in Incendiary (2008)
Story of a young mother whose life is changed forever by a terrorist attack on London.
Play trailer2:05
1 Video
24 Photos
Psychological DramaDramaRomanceThriller

A woman's life is forever changed when tragedy strikes at a soccer match.A woman's life is forever changed when tragedy strikes at a soccer match.A woman's life is forever changed when tragedy strikes at a soccer match.

  • Director
    • Sharon Maguire
  • Writers
    • Chris Cleave
    • Sharon Maguire
  • Stars
    • Michelle Williams
    • Ewan McGregor
    • Matthew Macfadyen
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    5.8/10
    9.2K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Sharon Maguire
    • Writers
      • Chris Cleave
      • Sharon Maguire
    • Stars
      • Michelle Williams
      • Ewan McGregor
      • Matthew Macfadyen
    • 48User reviews
    • 41Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Videos1

    Trailer
    Trailer 2:05
    Trailer

    Photos23

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    Top cast40

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    Michelle Williams
    Michelle Williams
    • Young Mother
    Ewan McGregor
    Ewan McGregor
    • Jasper Black
    Matthew Macfadyen
    Matthew Macfadyen
    • Terrence Butcher
    Nicholas Gleaves
    Nicholas Gleaves
    • Lenny
    Sidney Johnston
    Sidney Johnston
    • The Boy
    Usman Khokhar
    • The Bomber's Son
    Sasha Behar
    • The Bomber's Wife
    Ed Hughes
    Ed Hughes
    • Danny Walsh
    • (as Edward Hughes)
    Alibe Parsons
    Alibe Parsons
    • Pearl
    Stewart Wright
    • Charlie
    Al Ashton
    • Male Survivor
    • (as Al Hunter Ashton)
    Benjamin Wilkin
    • Young Policeman
    Robin Berry
    • Dazed Supporter
    Mercy Ojelade
    • Nurse Mena
    Joe Marshall
    • Gary…
    Nicholas Courtney
    Nicholas Courtney
    • Archbishop of Canterbury
    Jonathan Andrews
    • Police Officer at Station
    Monty Fromant
    • Security Guard
    • Director
      • Sharon Maguire
    • Writers
      • Chris Cleave
      • Sharon Maguire
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews48

    5.89.2K
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    Featured reviews

    7smatysia

    Michelle Williams performance is the best part of the film

    I had never heard of this film, nor did I read anything about it on IMDb beforehand, so I had no expectations whatsoever when I sat down for it. By 20 minutes in, I was enjoying it a lot. Michelle Williams was putting on a London accent which seemed flawless to me. (Okay, I'm a Texan, what do I know about English accents?) The big event seemed to be done pretty well. The film is mainly psychological, about dealing with loss. Miss Williams does very well with this material, and indeed, her performance is the best part of the film. But when I got into the final third of the film, my enjoyment started to flag. The flashback scenes were way overdone, even though I get that it was the director's way of showing the character's break with reality. And in the end, the character's shocking naivete about the mindset of Islamic terrorists was extremely jarring. Overall, I liked the movie, but I am not sure that I could recommend it to anyone else.
    5hall895

    It's a bomb

    A young mother sees her husband and four-year old son off to a soccer match. She then goes home and puts the match on the television. As she watches there are explosions at the stadium. A terrorist attack kills her husband, who she didn't much like anyway, and her son, who she loved dearly, along with a thousand or so others. Oh, and as the young mother watches this unfold on the television screen she is at that moment having sex with another man.

    This seems to set up a story about the young mother's guilt and grief. And there's some of that. But there's a bunch of other stuff too, none of which really works. There are conspiracy thriller elements which go practically nowhere. There are romantic entanglements as a couple of men who should really know better try to swoop in on the newly widowed young mother. In a portion of the film which strains credulity to the breaking point we see the young mother reach out to the son of one of the suicide bombers. The film goes off in so many different directions that it ends up being quite a mess. The young mother manages to hold herself together remarkably well given the circumstances. For a while anyway. But eventually she starts to crack and when she does the movie cracks too. At this point it is beyond repair.

    If there is anything positive to say it is that, working from a rather lousy script, Michelle Williams still does remarkably well in the role of the young mother. Whatever little successes this movie has belong to Williams. Ewan McGregor is at least passable as one of her suitors. As the other Matthew Macfadyen is a total dud and he also draws the shortest straw, getting the absolute worst of all the film's terrible dialogue. Some of the things this character says are just laughably, impossibly bad. He speaks in a way human beings simply do not speak. The film aims for melodrama but misses the mark. The story doesn't really engage and it moves at a snail's pace. A story more focused on the mother herself and the way she coped with this tragedy might have worked. But this movie gets bogged down as it veers off in other directions. Williams does the best she can but her noble effort can't save this dud.
    7Rachael-Harper

    Give this a chance!!

    This is worth watching just for Michelle William's mesmerising performance and I'm not sure why it's been so panned by so many reviewers. The story is interesting, but it's more about emotions of lust, loss, guilt and reconciliation.
    tturwitz78

    Pretentious melodrama - slooow, boooring and cliché-filled

    An awful waste of 1 hour and 35 minutes. Don't do this to yourself, unless you really enjoy pretentious melodramas with little or no story.

    According to the producers, and IMDb, this is a "Drama/Romance/Thriller". Make no mistake - it is not romance, and most certainly not a thriller.

    "Like watching paint dry" is an old saying, and probably as meaningless a way of spending time as watching "Incendiary". Still, many of us are likely never to have sat down for an hour and a half to watch paint dry, whereas we have all seen the clichées and the pretentious rubbish which makes up this utterly awful movie. We've seen it all before, though fortunately rarely in such a mindblowingly slooow pace and without virtually any story or message behind it.

    I is usually a bad sign when, 20 minutes into a film, still nothing has happened, and the information conveyed would easily fit into less than a minute. In this case, it is indeed fully indicative of what's to come: more of the same.

    The story as such can be told in it's entirety in a few sentences and scenes, which in fact it also is - the remainder of the of the movie just consists of endless, clichéd retrospectives, soul searching dialogs, marathon shots of facial expressions, you name it...

    Some have criticized the plausibility and credibility of the storyline, very often a problem with today's movies, but that's hardly where this movie falls down - it's in the fact that the story could easily have been told in ten minutes. It would still have been pointless, un-interesting and without meaning or message, but at least it would have been over quickly...
    jules-108

    Cod Mockney Melodrama

    This cod mockney melodrama from the director of Bridget Jones Diary fails at every level. It's clearly a film involving working class characters made by middle class people with both characters and plot lacking any authenticity and credibility whatsoever. In fact, the basic premise of Bridget Jones is transposed to this disastrous attempt at making a serious drama. Instead of writing a diary she writes letters to Osama Bin Laden. Instead of getting caught in a love triangle between Colin Firth and Hugh Grant she gets caught in a love triangle with two equally wet englishmen, uncomfortably played by Ewan MacGregor and Matthew Macfadayen, and all this, after her poor husband and son have been blown to bits in an unconvincing attack on Arsenal football stadium whilst she was shagging the local taloid newspaper reporter! The mawkish sentimentality that ensues is unbearable. In a preposterous celebration of London's blitz spirit, the faces of the victims are printed on the side of WWII air balloons which float above the city in every shot. And Michelle Williams, who miraculously found her sons toy rabbit in the ruins of the football stadium, clutches it to her chest in almost every scene. I find it hard to believe that this ill conceived script ever made it past treatment stage, particularly when so many established UK film companies like CH4 were involved in its development and finance. I find it equally hard to believe that the film was selected to screen at prestigious festivals like Sundance.This film is a worrying indictment of the failings of a the British film industry.

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Natalie Dormer filmed two days, playing the role of Ewan McGregor's girlfriend, but her role ended up on the cutting room floor. Nevertheless, she called it a "great experience".
    • Goofs
      When Ewan MacGregor's character is checking the attendees list for the May Day game the game shows as Chelsea v Arsenal indicating that Chelsea were the home team, however the explosion was said to be in North London, presumably at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium, and the Chelsea ground is in West London.
    • Quotes

      Young Mother: I wonder, did you celebrate when you heard my boys got killed? Did you turn on the radio and hear them say a thousand and three dead? Did you put down your mouth over the rocks and kneel down to pray? I prayed. I prayed for the deaths toll to go up to a thousand and four and take me too.

    • Crazy credits
      As part of the usual disclaimer at the end: "No persons, companies or businesses (including football clubs) shown or mentioned in the film have endorsed or are otherwise commercially associated with this production."
    • Connections
      Features Top Gear (2002)
    • Soundtracks
      Go West
      Written by Henri Belolo, Jacques Morali and Victor Willis

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    FAQ

    • How long is Incendiary?
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    Details

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    • Release date
      • October 24, 2008 (United Kingdom)
    • Countries of origin
      • United Kingdom
      • Cayman Islands
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Trái Bom Khủng Bố
    • Filming locations
      • Camber Sands, Camber, East Sussex, England, UK
    • Production companies
      • Aramid Entertainment Fund
      • Archer Street Productions
      • Capitol Films
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $10,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross worldwide
      • $304,127
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 36 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.35 : 1

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