Incendiary

PREVIOUSLY: LONG WAY DOWN: “MAUN, BOTSWANA TO CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA”

A British drama released in 2008, based on the novel of the same name by Chris Cleave and written and directed by Sharon Maguire, Incendiary tells the story of a young mother (Michelle Williams.) After her husband and son are killed in a terrorist attack, she struggles to find closure and move on with her life.

Hokay. Well, I’ll start with the positives. Primarily, that’s Michelle Williams acting her goddamn heart out. There were several moments when my heart ached for her. Matthew Macfayden turns in a smaller but heartfelt performance as well. If there’s one thing Mr. Darcy knows how to do, it’s quiet yearning. I still haven’t seen Succession yet, I don’t know what he does in that.

While the script is pretty weak, I still think it’s overall stronger, more cohesive, and less bonkers than the book it was based on. I went a bit into my dislike of the novel earlier, but I say again, holy shit. Unfortunately, instead of the deeply cynical end the novel had, the movie ends happily (?) but somehow manages to feel cynical in a different way in its quick wrap-up.

As in the book, we never learn the name of the Young Mother/narrator. (“Young Mother” is how she’s listed in the credits.) She has anxiety over her husband’s career as part of the bomb disposal unit with the police. In the book, she and her husband get along fine. The toll of his career and their poverty strain things, but it’s still apparent that they care about each other. Right before the football match, he promises his wife that he’ll leave the force and change careers if she’s really that bothered by it, and everything will get better. And of course that’s not what happens.

The way the Young Mother’s promiscuity was portrayed in the novel was extremely cringeworthy. Chris Cleave is, in fact, a man, and is not a grieving mother. The book is a long one-sided conversation with Osama bin Laden, and it’s deeply embarrassing. At one point, the Young Mother tells Osama bin Laden that she feels so empty inside, but implies that when there’s a penis inside her, it makes her feel full. “I wouldn’t expect you to understand, Osama. You’re not a woman.” That is a direct quote. You’re not a woman, either, Chris! What in god’s name do you think having a vagina feels like?? Is that why you think all the women you know are sad?

So considering…that…I think it’s overall handled better in the movie. The movie was written and directed by a woman, and blessedly, she cut out a lot of the internal monologue voiceover. We just see things happen sometimes and are allowed to read whatever subtext in it that we want. The Young Mother is neglected by her husband in the movie, and she strikes up a relationship with journalist Jasper Black (Ewan McGregor,) her wealthier neighbor across the street, by chance. He ends up plowing her on her sofa right as they watch her husband and son get blown up during the televised football match.

After this, Jasper is obsessed with her. He was initially sort of infatuated with her (in the book he has a poverty fetish,) but then he went to bang her instead of going to the football match, and thinking with his dick saved his life. There are many, many shots of Ewan McGregor camping out underneath her window like a creepy lovesick teenager, but he almost entirely runs out of things to do in the movie after that.

There’s still the relationship the mother begins with her dead husband’s boss, Terrence Butcher (Matthew Macfayden.) That feels a bit like it comes out of nowhere, and it gets very love-triangle-y for like one scene. I guess because that’s a contractual obligation for the director of the Bridget Jones movies? I haven’t seen those either.

There’s also the big reveal that the police knew ahead of time that there’d be a terror attack at the stadium, but they let it happen anyway, for…reasons? Something about how they knew there’d be an even bigger attack later but didn’t have enough information to stop that one, and if they stopped the stadium bombing their sources would be compromised and the bigger bombing might still happen. It’s not very compellingly explained, but the point is, surprise, the police don’t have your back.

In the book, Jasper’s girlfriend, Petra, is around the whole time and has a very big part. It turns out she’s basically a doppelganger for the Young Mother, except she’s posh. She works at the newspaper with Jasper. The Young Mother comes home from the hospital after the deaths of her husband and son to find Jasper and Petra doing it in her apartment. And for some reason, she ends up falling into their orbit and getting very close with them after that.

The whole thing about how the police knew is basically the climax of the book. The Young Mother is feeding information from Terrence Butcher to Jasper to blow the story. At the last second, it’s decided that Petra will be the one to pitch the story, because she’s more credible. (She’s a fashion reporter.) But then Petra decides to sell Jasper and the Young Mother out, agreeing to bury the story in exchange for a promotion because (gasp) it was a conspiracy that goes all the way up to the top. Terrence Butcher is arrested for squealing and is thrown in solitary confinement forever. Jasper purposely incites a citywide panic that a second terrorist attack is about to happen, even though it isn’t, but the stampedes etc. result in hundreds more dead. Jasper is shot dead by the cops. The Young Mother plays dumb and is released after questioning. Then she attempts to murder Petra in the midst of her lengthy psychotic episode before deciding to be the bigger person and walks away to finish her TMI letter to Osama bin Laden. I wonder who the real terrorists are.

The film changes a lot in the back half. Natalie Dormer was cast and shot a few scenes as Petra, but her role was cut entirely. This was a smart decision. The whole thing about blowing the story that the cops knew is also removed entirely. They still knew, but then that’s dropped, and no one ever feels the need to try to let the public know that.

The movie still has the half-hearted, half-assed “not all Muslims” messaging the novel had, but it is slightly improved, I think, because it bothers to actually portray sympathetic Muslim characters for longer than a quick mention.

Jasper exposes the identity of one of the suspected bombers, and the Young Mother ends up growing close with the suspected bomber’s son in the process of doing reconnaissance to determine how much he knew about his father’s plans. Turns out, nothing. He’s just a boy who remembers his father as an ordinary man and hopes he miraculously comes home. I thought those scenes were some of the strongest in the movie. It’s a real shame that the kid gets forgotten after the Young Mother literally takes a bullet for him when he gets racially profiled and nearly sniped by the cops. He finally shows back up at the end with his mom, and they try to talk to the Young Mother. She refuses, because as in the book, she’s had a full psychotic break by this point and believes her son’s alive again. The boy’s mom gives her a letter. She tells the Young Mother she wishes she could bring her family back and tries to thank her for saving her son. The Young Mother abruptly runs off, never opens the letter, and we never see those two characters again. So much for that emotional dead end.

The Young Mother becomes a mother again at the end of the movie. It could be her husband’s baby or Terrence’s baby, but I guess it’s implied she got knocked up by Jasper. They don’t appear to be in contact at this point but he is still stalking her and he shows up at the hospital at the end, seemingly without her knowledge. Uh, so the baby must be his?

If it is his, it’s a fifty/fifty chance she got impregnated at the precise moment she saw her husband and child die on live television. Jesus Christ. So much for Terrence’s line about how she could never move on with Jasper, because every time she looks at him, “she’ll think of that day.” What about the baby he put inside her “that day”? How’s she supposed to move on with that?? Doesn’t matter. New baby make it better. Something something life finds a way; something something love is more powerful than hate; something something I’m sure you’re not really a bad guy deep down and I forgive you, Osama bin Laden. The end. Ta da!

If I had to recommend one of them, I would recommend the movie over the book. But if I could recommend none of them, I wouldn’t recommend the movie either. The movie is still often thuddingly slow and ponderous, quite messy, and maudlin with a confused thesis statement. Michelle’s performance is truly quite good, but I just don’t think this was a story that needed to be told.

COMING UP NEXT: DECEPTION