Incendies
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: April 22, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
80
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 42 Critic Reviews
Positive:
36
Mixed:
6
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The TelegraphDavid GrittenNov 9, 2016
Incendies is no one’s idea of a joyful ride, but it’s a remarkable work, and its complex story etches itself on the memory. Read full review
100
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallJun 8, 2011
Incendies is a gallery of nightly news atrocities - a bus massacre, rape, children with guns - yet it's made intensely personal under the director's steady hand. Read full review
100
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanMay 27, 2011
It knocks you off your feet and leaves you shaken. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsApr 28, 2011
Incendies is no mere riff on a Greek mainstay. It is its own entity, delicate and fierce. Already I've risked making it sound like homework. It's not; it's an enthralling drama of survival. Read full review
100
NPRBob MondelloApr 25, 2011
The storytelling in Incendies strikes me as primal the way Greek tragedy is primal. Shattering. Cathartic. It is a breathtaking film. Read full review
100
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternApr 21, 2011
Denis Villeneuve's screen adaptation of a play by the Lebanese-Canadian playwright Wajdi Mouawad tells a story-masterfully-of courage, cruelty, family mysteries and a chain of anger that can only be broken by love. Read full review
100
Time OutJoshua RothkopfApr 19, 2011
A staggering political drama that could put you in mind of the intimate sweep of Bernardo Bertolucci, Incendies feels like a mighty movie in our midst. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanApr 19, 2011
The movie is a bumpy road of twists that leads to a revelation that has the shock and force of Greek tragedy. Read full review
90
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMay 12, 2011
Villeneuve's telling of her story - and of her children's - is painful, searing and something close to brilliant. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinApr 19, 2011
The movie doesn't quite jell, but you'll feel its sting for hours. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterStephen FarberApr 19, 2011
Although the film runs more than two hours, the story is so compelling and the production so beautifully controlled that we are gripped by the characters' quest right up to the shocking end of the story. Read full review
88
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottJul 15, 2011
A story of hope amid the ruins -- one that everybody can appreciate, no matter their politics. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaMay 19, 2011
Reverberates with the power and passion of Greek tragedy. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezMay 19, 2011
The movie, engrossing as it is intentionally horrifying, is capped by a last-minute revelation that brings the story to a haunting, powerful close. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrMay 12, 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. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertApr 27, 2011
Most people do not choose their religions but have them forced upon themselves by birth, and the lesson of Incendies is that an accident of birth is not a reason for hatred. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversApr 21, 2011
A devastating mystery thriller from Quebec filmmaker Denis Villeneuve that grabs you hard and won't let go. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnApr 21, 2011
The climax is a little too clever and far-fetched-an unnecessarily neat finale for a movie that works fine when dealing in broad strokes, some of which are nothing short of masterful. Read full review
80
Total FilmTom DawsonNov 9, 2016
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. Read full review
80
EmpireDavid ParkinsonJun 20, 2011
A thriller that twists and turns with an understated power that will have you gripping the arm of your seat. Terrific stuff. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderAndrea GronvallApr 28, 2011
By the end theyve acquired a measure of self-knowledge at a cost dearer than they expected, which reminds us that what we think we know can be just the beginning of an existential journey. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierApr 22, 2011
Filled with striking images and the ghosts of lives lived in hardship and war, Incendies is tough but impactful. Read full review
80
The New York TimesA.O. ScottApr 21, 2011
Mr. Villeneuve tells Nawal's story in a way that is both subtle and emphatic, and Ms. Azabal, portraying Nawal from hopeful youth to despairing middle age, gives a performance that is all the more powerful for the restrained, unshakeable sense of dignity she brings to it. Read full review
80
Boxoffice MagazineEd SchiedApr 19, 2011
Azabal is superb, conveying Nawal's fiery presence, determination and mounting bitterness. The impressive cast includes non-professionals from Jordan, where Incendies was filmed. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeApr 19, 2011
Incendies vaults Denis Villeneuve to the status of serious director. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenJun 2, 2011
It would be difficult not to be swept away by the dramatic intensity of Incendies. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyNov 9, 2016
With Incendies, Villeneuve attempts to balance moment-by-moment authenticity and operatic emotional impact. Much of the time, he succeeds. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesTed FryNov 9, 2016
A deeply resonant literary quality gives what might otherwise seem like a dubious series of coincidences a profound sense of plausibility. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanJun 23, 2011
The story might have worked as well without that stick-in-the-craw coincidence, which was inserted to maximize the horrors of Nawal's past. Read full review
75
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreMay 17, 2011
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. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerApr 23, 2011
The film's moral lesson – that violence begets violence – isn't exactly a showstopper, and the balm that is laid on Nawal and her riven family can't quite compensate for the poison that preceded it. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyApr 21, 2011
The past is where all the intrigue of the movie lies, and that is where the film is at its most compelling, with the present sometimes wilting in the desert heat. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianShawn LevyMay 19, 2011
Incendies was likely a crackling thing to read, but it's not quite so vivid as a finished film. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubTasha RobinsonApr 21, 2011
While the film will likely stick with viewers, it's ultimately a tossup what they'll remember most: the stunning buildup, or the massive letdown. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineAndrew SchenkerNov 9, 2016
An enormously effective piece of filmmaking, Incdendies unfolds as a series of eye-opening disclosures which Villeneuve plays as much for (admittedly enthralling) sensation as for any kind of wider-ranging inquiry, a questionable approach given the thorny nature of the material. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsMay 20, 2011
Canadian director Denis 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. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonDavid JenkinsNov 9, 2016
While the characters lack credibility, the social backdrop and texture of the performances certainly don’t, and Villeneuve manages to say more about the sorry state of the Middle East (Lebanon is suggested but never mentioned) through the bold, crisp way he shoots faces, buildings and parched, beige-brown landscapes. So let’s call it’s a strong film based on a weak story. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawNov 9, 2016
It's an intriguing movie, in some ways, but its contrived and even bizarre final revelation depends on coincidences of almost Hardyesque proportions. It is not really believable, and yet if it is not taken literally, but as a cinematic prose-poem, it has undoubted force. Read full review
50
The Film StageDan MeccaNov 9, 2016
The film, directed by Denis Villeneuve, delves into the moral fiber and traumatic tree rings of war more than most films have or most likely ever will, but without one clear vantage point or emotional anchor. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoMay 5, 2011
Skillfully made and offering moments of great power, the French Canadian drama Incendies nevertheless overplays its hand, piling tragedy on tragedy until we feel browbeaten with misery. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle SmithApr 22, 2011
A kind name for this attitude is false moral equivalence, or perhaps post-imperial cringe. A less kind one is Western self-hatred, or an urgent plea to tolerate the intolerant. Read full review
50
Village VoiceMark HolcombApr 19, 2011
Nawal's travails are more in the vein of a Latin American soap opera than Greek tragedy, and Jeanne and Simon's climactic, genuinely god-awful discovery plays like artistic sleight-of-hand rather than the profoundly tautological revelation it aspires to be. Read full review
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