Incendiary

Released by: Image Entertainment
Released on: May 5, 2009.
Director: Sharon Maguire
Cast: Ewan McGregor, Michelle Williams, Matthew Macfayden
Year: 2008
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The Movie:

Directed by Sharon Maguire, she of Bridget Jones' Diary fame, 2008's Incendiary, a straight to video film starring Ewan McGregor and Michelle Williams, finds the current Obi Wan playing a reporter named Jasper who is having an affair with a married woman (Williams) whose husband works for the bomb squad in London's police department. When her husband and son head off to a soccer game, a terrorist attack kills them both, leaving her devastated, initially with no one to turn to but Jasper. She befriends the head of the anti-terrorist unit heading up the investigation, Terrance (Matthew Macfayden), and then tracks down the son of one of the suicide bombers responsible for killing her family, all in an attempt to piece together some sort of explanation for the senseless violence that took her family from her.

Incendiary has its moments, but unfortunately these moments are hampered by some pretty big problems, the first of which is Ewan McGregor. While McGregor is a pretty solid actor, here his character really serves very little purpose. He adds nothing to the story except for one or two unnecessary plot elements that, again, don't further the central core of the movie, which is Williams' need to put her life back together and come up with some sort of rationale for what happened to her husband and young son. McGregor does a fine job with the role, but the role itself is vapid.

Williams, whose character is never named, does deserve some credit for her work on this picture - she even manages to convince us she's English, never once flubbing the accent. While the plot meanders back and forth between the elements that force her character to evolve, her acting is consistently good. She's quite believable in the part and is equally sympathetic and realistically flawed as the story moves around her. There are parts of the film where you very definitely feel for her and the credit goes to Williams first and foremost, as the script itself is a bit of a mess.

Pacing wise, the movie takes a fair bit of time to really pick up. You'll find yourself struggling not to hit the fast forward button for the first twenty minutes or so, which is never a good sign, though the film does get marginally better in its later sections. The cover art would have you believe that this is a thriller, that it might have some action or intrigue to chew on or maybe some scenes of tension to keep you on the edge of your seat but the reality of the situation is that this is a very character heavy drama with romantic overtones. The packaging is a bit misleading in that regard.

The film has an interesting premise and at least makes an attempt to explore some very real and very human themes, but sadly, it never quite takes off. It doesn't succeed as a thriller at all despite a surprising explosion sequence, and as a drama, it doesn't offer us enough of interest. The performances are good, the cinematography and music design are all perfectly fine and the film is quite competent on a technical level in that its look accurately reflects its mood, but the script is a bit of a mess.

Video/Audio/Extras:

The 2.40.1 1080p AVC encoded high definition anamorphic widescreen transfer is brings the film's bleak and fairly colorless landscape to home video in good quality. This isn't a transfer that will leap off the screen at you but it does look like the movie is supposed to look, which is to say that it's rather grim in appearance. Detail is strong even if it could have been stronger while black levels stay consistent and deep. There aren't any mpeg compression or edge enhancement problems to report, and generally the image is stable and clear.

The English language DTS-HD 5.1 track is primarily roped around the front center channel with minimal surround usage occurring periodically throughout the movie. This isn't a particularly active or aggressive mix and you can't help but feel like more could have been done here. That said, the sound is always clear and there are no problems to report with the levels or with any hiss or distortion related issues.

All that Image has included on this Blu-ray release, aside from the requisite menu and chapter selection options, is a standard definition version of the film's trailer and a small still gallery.

The Final Word:

Ewan McGregor and Michelle Williams are decent enough in the lead roles but the story stumbles a few too many times for its own good. Image's Blu-ray looks decent enough, though the sound mix isn't particularly impressive and the disc is almost barebones. This one is really for Gregor/Williams fanatics only.