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Article IndexBY JOE TYRRELL
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
MOVIE REVIEW
The brilliant Canadian film "Incendies" illuminates parts of the human condition otherwise consigned to darkness.
Director Denis Villeneuve's version of Wadji Mouawad's play "Scorched," more a sympathetic expansion than a simple adaptation, is one of the best films of 2010. At last, it is showing in cinemas around New Jersey.
This riveting drama combines the twists and clues of an Elmore Leonard detective tale with the brutality and striving of a Joseph Conrad colonial inquiry.
It opens with a mystery. A pair of twins have come for a reading of their mother's will at the office of the Montréal notary who was also her employer. They are shocked at her instructions: bury her nude, with no marker, until they succeed where she failed in keeping a promise.
Nawal has left her daughter Jeanne a letter to be delivered to their brother. But the twins have never heard of any brother. Son Simon gets a similar missive for their father. But Nawal always told the twins that he was killed in wartime.
Simon (Maxim Gaudette) wants no part of this. He believes Nawal was suffering from mental problems before she died. Indeed, in a quick flashback, we see her sitting like a stone on a chaise at a Montréal swimming pool, unresponsive to the Jeanne's worried questions.
As Jeanne, Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin gives the kind of quiet, nuanced performance worthy of Sarah Polley. She is determined to follow her mother's instructions wherever they lead. In this, she finds a loyal ally in notary Jean Lebel, played by the veteran Rémy Girard ("Jesus of Montréal").
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