Incendies acquires its heft from some very deep places -- Greek tragedy rather than newsflashes.

| Jun 28, 2011

Normally I'm against decent original stories being dumbed down and squashed into bog-standard thriller shapes. But Incendies is in dire need of some dumbing down.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 25, 2011

It isn't easy to open out a well-respected stage play without losing a lot of its bite and subtlety.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 24, 2011

Denis Villeneuve's tormented family drama strips off one layer of meaning after another on its way to a thoroughly jolting terminus.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 24, 2011

It is not really believable, and yet if it is not taken literally, but as a cinematic prose-poem, it has undoubted force.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 23, 2011

Incendies is in essence a family drama, astonishingly intense but impressively poised.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 23, 2011

Elemental and expertly directed, Nawal's story haunts long after the credits have rolled.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 23, 2011

A strong film based on a weak story.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 22, 2011

Terrific stuff.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 20, 2011

There is a mind-blowing quality to this story that is visceral and current, speaking to the world as we know it and hinting at a peace we sadly can only imagine.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 3, 2011

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

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 3, 2011

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

| Original Score: B | May 27, 2011

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

| Original Score: A- | May 26, 2011

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

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 26, 2011

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

| Original Score: 4/4 | May 20, 2011

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.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 20, 2011

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.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 12, 2011

Villeneuve's telling of her story - and of her children's - is painful, searing and something close to brilliant.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | May 12, 2011

This is the sort of movie, smart about geo-politics, but equally rich and complex in human emotions, that Costa-Gavras was making in his prime.

| May 11, 2011

Overplays its hand, piling tragedy on tragedy until we feel browbeaten with misery.

| Original Score: 2/4 | May 5, 2011