Sunday, March 11, 2012

Incendies (2011)


Director: Denis Villanueve

This is a thriller-drama that consists of an investigation of a family history, a history that takes place during war and travesty. The investigation by the daughter and son of a departed mother is compelling and fun to watch, but for some reason the investigation ends up stopping right at the end when the final answers are not figured out, but given to them by a guy who found out off screen. Unfortunately, while those answers are not bad on their own, they are much more melodramatic than the tone of the rest of the movie would have you believe.

The film does craft a great journey through the history of a family that spans real-life wars in Lebanon and Palestine, but the end turns the movie into a family melodrama without much logic unfortunately. It's definitely a very memorable movie only for where the mystery actually ends up, but at the end, the larger questions of war, religion, and ethnicity seem to take a backseat to the questions of the plot. I definitely had a personal interest in the story because of its Middle Eastern setting which made the movie interesting to watch for almost the whole runtime. The movie is well-made and well-intentioned, but it proves to be just a bit too melodramatic for its themes.

Grade: C+

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