''Incendiary'' is a 2008 British drama film portraying the aftermath of a
terrorist
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
attack at a
football match. It is directed by
Sharon Maguire and stars
Michelle Williams,
Ewan McGregor, and
Matthew Macfadyen. It is about a
suicide bombing
A suicide attack is any violent attack, usually entailing the attacker detonating an explosive, where the attacker has accepted their own death as a direct result of the attacking method used. Suicide attacks have occurred throughout histor ...
at
Emirates Stadium during an
Arsenal F.C.
Arsenal Football Club, commonly referred to as Arsenal, is a professional football club based in Islington, London, England. Arsenal plays in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The club has won 13 league titles (inclu ...
match, and its aftermath in the life of a woman who loses her husband and young son in the attack. It is based on the 2005 novel ''
Incendiary'' by
Chris Cleave.
Plot
A young
East Ender woman (
Michelle Williams) is married to bomb-disposal officer Lenny (
Nicholas Gleaves
Nicholas Gleaves (born 2 January 1969) is an English actor and playwright.
Career
Gleaves's first theatre part was as an extra in ''Don Carlos'' at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester. He did several plays there including the lead in ''Mac ...
); they have a four-year-old son (Sidney Johnston).
While the young mother is having an affair with a reporter called Jasper (
Ewan McGregor), Lenny, their son, and about 1000 others are killed in a
terrorist
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
attack carried out by six
suicide bombers at a
football match. Both Jasper and Lenny's boss, Terrence Butcher (
Matthew Macfadyen), who is in charge of the
anti-terrorist division, try to comfort the mother. Both are also romantically interested in her.
Through Jasper's investigation into the bombing, the mother discovers the identity of one of the terrorists. She befriends his teenage son (Usman Khokhar), who only knows that his father is missing since the attacks. When he finds out what his father did, he panics and runs, causing the police to suspect him to be a terrorist. When he tries to take something out of his pocket they think he has a gun or wants to trigger a bomb; they shoot at him, but he is unarmed. The mother, who tried to protect him, is wounded, but not severely. Later, the terrorist's wife and son apologize to the mother for his part in the killings.
Terrence confesses to the mother that he knew that a suicide attack was going to happen and could have stopped it, but he did not in order to be able to continue his investigation of the terrorist group. He says that he did not know in which stadium it would happen, and also thought it would be of a smaller scale. Although he knew Lenny and his son would be going, he did not warn them.
Sometimes the mother is confused, thinking that nothing has happened to her son. Throughout the film, for therapeutic reasons, she writes a letter addressed to
Osama bin Laden, who is assumed to be responsible for the attack.
In the film's final scenes, the mother has another son by Jasper, who is seen running to the hospital and asking for her at the nursing station.
Cast
*
Michelle Williams – Young Mother
*
Ewan McGregor – Jasper Black
*
Matthew Macfadyen – Terrence Butcher
*
Nicholas Gleaves
Nicholas Gleaves (born 2 January 1969) is an English actor and playwright.
Career
Gleaves's first theatre part was as an extra in ''Don Carlos'' at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester. He did several plays there including the lead in ''Mac ...
– Lenny
* Sidney Johnston – The Boy
* Usman Khokhar – The Bomber's Son
* Sasha Behar – Mrs. Ghorbani, the Bomber's Wife
* Ed Hughes – Danny Walsh (as Edward Hughes)
* Alibe Parsons – Pearl
* Stewart Wright – Charlie
*
Al Hunter Ashton – Male Survivor
* Benjamin Wilkin – Young Policeman
* Steve Leatherbarrow - Policeman
* Robin Berry – Dazed Supporter
* Mercy Ojelade – Nurse Mena
* Joe Marshall – Gary / VT Man
Production
Filming began on 26 March 2007 in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, England. The first filmed scenes were shot on location in
Northampton Square
Northampton Square, a green town square, is in a corner of Clerkenwell projecting into Finsbury, in Central London. It is between Goswell Road and St John Street (and Spencer and Percival Streets), has a very broad pedestrian walkway on the nor ...
and the Brunswick Estate in
Islington,
North London.
Filming also took place at
Leyton Orient's
Brisbane Road
Brisbane Road, originally known as Osborne Road, is a football stadium in Brisbane Road, Leyton, East London, England. It has been the home ground of Leyton Orient since 1937, before which it was the home of amateur football team Leyton F.C., ...
stadium. Filming continued during the week of 30 April 2007 in
St Albans
St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major town on the old Roman ...
, in particular in and around the
Cathedral
A cathedral is a church that contains the ''cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominations ...
,
St Albans School, and Westminster Lodge.
[
The production also visited The Metropolitan Training College facilities near Gravesend to shoot the scenes at the football stadium, after the bomb has exploded.][
]
Reception
Generally, the film received poor reviews. Tom Charity, after viewing the film at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, gave it one star out of five and called it an "ambitious/opportunistic effort that misses the mark, from the one-dimensional characters to the craven plotting and sentimental tone."
Philip French called it an "ambitious British picture on an urgent topical subject hatis torpedoed by a poor script."
''Time Out
Time-out, Time Out, or timeout may refer to:
Time
* Time-out (sport), in various sports, a break in play, called by a team
* Television timeout, a break in sporting action so that a commercial break may be taken
* Timeout (computing), an engine ...
'' gave it two stars out of six, saying "there are so many things wrong with writer-director Sharon Maguire’s first film since '' Bridget Jones's Diary'' in 2001 that it's hard to know where to start, but the fatal problem is that this is a film with an identity crisis"; the film at times seems like a "study of guilt and grief" and at other times a "conspiracy thriller" but "ends up being a compendium of bizarre diversions, most of which are utterly surplus to the film’s half-cocked desire to stick with the experience and emotions of its main character."Review of ''Incendiary''
an October 2008 article from ''Time Out
Time-out, Time Out, or timeout may refer to:
Time
* Time-out (sport), in various sports, a break in play, called by a team
* Television timeout, a break in sporting action so that a commercial break may be taken
* Timeout (computing), an engine ...
London''
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Incendiary (Film)
Films about terrorism in Europe
2008 films
British drama films
2000s English-language films
Films based on British novels
2008 drama films
Films set in London
Films directed by Sharon Maguire
Films scored by Shigeru Umebayashi
2000s British films