Tasty

Rating: Null/10 (1 October 2011)

This movie was exquisite. There are some slow-moving parts -- low-action shots of say the lead actor swimming, or traveling through the Mid East's dry arid land.
There were repeated flashbacks in which it was sometimes hard to tell if it was the mother or daughter since they had similar looks. Flashbacks were done judiciously, sensitively, subtly, without giving the audience hard, obvious evidence in the quest to "solve" this retroactive mystery. A tearjerker with some action, violence, rape, but it was a character study too. The notary/executor was great, and this opened up another world to me too, and it lets one have a new view of this profession. I liked that the notary had a "colleague" in the MidEast.
The references to historic events in the country where this film was set, closely resembled the history of South Lebanon (which goes without being named) in the late 1900s. My knowledge is nil here but I seem to recall a multitude of complex, external forces involved in what's referred to as the Lebanese "Civil War." Some of the actors, like Christians and Palestinians, are correctly identified though. Hatred for Palestinian refugees by the "Lebanese" is a prime driver in launching the plot.
This is the birthplace of Lebanese-Canadien writer Wajdi Mouawad, who wrote the play "Incendies (Scorched)," upon which this film is based. There is a maddening subtext of logic and math. In fact there was one statement, something to the effect of, "everything happened precise logic" (in that country), which would be why your standard warlord would have encyclopedic knowledge of something decades past.
The heroine is a math professor's is training to teach math. And he tells her, "For this quest you'll great intuition. That, you have, and that's why you'll be a great mathematician." Later, the simplest arithmetic problem known to man, grates, repeatedly, and actually sums up the entire plot of the film. I didn't get this part at first. Oddly, Mr. Mouawad has a straight-up fine arts background, but I'm guessing he was once involved in math, science, or technology. There's even a very brief mention of a cabdriver who has an engineering degree.
I partially agree with Ebert about that part of the start of the quest was a plot device or Deus Ex Machina. But it doesn't matter since the plot is really interesting, as layers of reality of the young siblings' history are peeled away, to the denouement. Ebert gave this a 3-1/2 of 4 stars. IMDb gave it an 8.2 of 10 stars.
English subtitles. I speak Arabic and French an it was an added bonus to me that most the movie was in these two languages. Not keen on Radiohead -- one of their songs in any movie is too much for me.
Watch this stunning, award-winning film. You will puzzle, sigh, laugh, cry -- and you will not be let down.