Incendiary - Dir: Sharon Maguire

I have to declare a vested interest in this that might tarnish my objectivity.

This starts off rather well with a beautiful score over some simple titles and opening scenes. I had heard that the book is written in the first person and efforts to adhere to that very difficult task lead to a few clunky moments. There a couple of lines during the initial seduction of the girl by the journalist that lead to laughter of disbelief from my fellow audience members. We recovered from that little hiccup and proceeded to a well executed second love-scene and the pursuant disaster.

The next big problem for me were these awful barrage balloons. I can just imagine what a poetic image they would have cast in the book but they just can't be realised on film. Quite apart from the digital effects being awful, when you see them on the screen you soon understand that a different device should have been dreamt up. The very idea that over 1000 tall buildings in London might have had these winches on them and that everyone owned an extremely high resolution photo of their lost loved one requires one to suspend belief higher than any digitally created hot air balloon. That we returned to these images on so many occasions added to to the implausibility for me.

The explanation for not telling the girl's husband to miss the match or why the game wasn't stopped and evacuated was a terrible muddle and not the neat package it should have been

So what was good about it? I liked the score. I thought that both of the tension scenes were very well handled. My companion pointed out, the station sequence misses one pivotal shot of the kid jumping a barrier which would have made the police officers reactions plausible. We do see him running along to the end of the platform so we have to assume that he did jump a barrier or rush past some obstacle that gave rise to the police thinking he was something more than a kid running with a back pack but I agree, in a film that had some other more clunky expositional shots, a barrier or confrontation point would have slotted in quite helpfully.

There are some intentionally comic interludes that work well in the desperate sadness of the narrative. There is a lovely sequence with Terrence talking through the door to the girl. He really is a lovable prat but we are never given the chance to see why he would be attracted to her. In a film awash with flashbacks, it would also have been nice to see the fancy dress party with them dressed as a gladiator and Pocahontas. I jest - it would have been madness to include this but a particularly pleasant fantasy I would like to retain in my mind a while longer!

Ewan looked good and sleezy despite the affluence of his home and car which seemed fitting for an Express journalist. Nasty bit of a tattoo cover-up but it can't be easy. Michelle's performance and accent was everything it should be and more and great credit must be given to her. Matthew is often cast older than his years but 45 is stretching it a bit in my opinion. BOTH of the boys gave wonderful performances although neither of them seemed to be the age they were supposedly portraying.

I felt a bit short-changed with the character developments and I was left with a feeling of general unfinished business and a bit of a muddle somehow. This diluted the message and left it wanting. It passed the time but it won't win any awards.

EDIT: I have just glanced over the Screen International review and it's a perfect example of the muddle we have because their reviewer thought that the police had identified the bomber's son (as a suspect????) whereas I think we are supposed to think that the journalist's expose of his father which is plastered over all the news stands is the trigger that sends him running in confused panic. He's not the only one!! That said, they detail one aspect of the plot which was clearly cut from the edit that is hitting the UK theatres so maybe the station scene was different for them too......but I doubt it.