Just Short of Perfect

Rating: 9/10 (15 July 2012)

Were it not for the fact that the plot is tied in too neat a bow at the very end, "Incendies" would be a perfect movie. Told in both the present and the past, the film traces the efforts of twins, Jeanne (Melissa Desormeaux-Poulin) and Simon (Maxim Gaudette) to carry out the wish of their dead mother (Lubna Araval) to find and deliver letters to their father and lost brother. The twins go to Lebanon -- Jeanne with conviction, Simon reluctantly. They don't quite know where to begin. The brother, their mother's illegitimate son, was sent to an orphanage. That much is quickly established. But from there on, the film follows the search and also plays back the events in the Lebanese Civil War which separated their mother from her child and from the father or the twins. Once the search was fully under way, this viewer was initially bit confused as to which parts were present and which parts were past because Ms. Desormeaux-Poulin looks at times much like Ms. Araval, so I didn't always know whether I was witnessing the search by the daughter or the war time travails of the mother. It's a minor problem because, soon enough, the two elements -- the search and the war -- diverge and the context identifies daughter and mother. The two women each handle their roles superbly. Simon is a necessary player but M. Gaudette is no more than adequate in the role, which is, in any event, subsidiary to that of mother and daughter.
I won't reveal the ending. However, the war time scenes are depicted with convincing brutality, and the indifference to suffering that characterized the Lebanese Civil War is as appalling on film as it might have been if one had actually been there when it happened. In addition, the cameras are focused on the bleak landscape outside the villages and towns, which adds to the sense that this is as close to real life as it is possible to get.
As suggested in the beginning of this review, I found the ending too pat and much too convenient, but it is certainly dramatic -- and others may find it more convincing than I did.