91% Incendies

All Critics (92) | Top Critics (29) | Fresh (84) | Rotten (8) | DVD (0)

It's a powerful, disturbing film. May there be a day when such works seem less relevant.

Rage has no expiration date in Incendies, director Denis Villeneuve's gripping, era-jumping drama about a family melded to its war-torn past.

It is no surprise that it was nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

"Incendies" is occasionally compelling, but also overlong and vexing in the ways it draws out a "shocking" conclusion that we unravel long before the characters do.

If you think of Canadian films as the movie equivalent of cucumber sandwiches and chamomile tea, hold tight.

A mystery, a melodrama, a prison film, and a love story, "Incendies'' is foremost a scream of rage at a society destroyed by religion and by men.

Expertly shifting between present and past , writer-director Denis Villeneuve displays an impressive command of his material, patiently building up to an emotionally explosive climax.

As the horrors become clear, as rape and torture and death draw us deeper into the abyss, Incendies hopes to help us see clearly. It doesn't always succeed.

The most intense film I've seen all year. It's also one of the most compelling -- and, in its own way, one of the most entertaining.

"Childhood is a knife stuck in your throat," a dead woman's will informs her twin children. "It can't be easily removed." The siblings will discover that knife is double-edged on an odyssey to discover their roots.

Incendies is a grueling, harrowing trek in search of identity. It is more an emotional experience than an intellectual exercise, more the heart than the head.

The movie plays out like a page-turning novel that you can't put down. There are a number of shocking revelations that take you completely by surprise. The acting is outstanding, especially the...

Instead of finding resonance between personal and political tragedy, the film only succeeds in cheapening both.

It would be difficult not to be swept away by the dramatic intensity of Incendies.

he film offers moments for comprehension and reflection, beautifully pacing itself right up until its stunning conclusion.

Imaginative and illuminating, demonstrating that children often have no idea about what went on in their parents' lives during the formative years before they were born.

A deeply resonant literary quality gives what might otherwise seem like a dubious series of coincidences a profound sense of plausibility.

Begins with a promise and ends with revelations so combustible they'll consume anyone who uncovers the truth.

At once a stirring familial drama, a potent commentary on modern political strife and--more than a sideline--a cracking good mystery.

Manufactures shocks that have purpose, and that resonate long after the anxious feelings the movie prompts have finally settled.

Villaneuve knows how to stoke a hot debate about the legacy of violence. But in this case, where there's smoke, there's not enough air.

There's a lurid, even twisted air to the proceedings, which derive from a play by Wajdi Mouawad.

There is great beauty and great sorrow in Nawal's story and Villeneuve and his actors do it great justice.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/incendies/

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