
Director Sharon Maguire says this about her philosophy about our freedoms in a post 9/11 word: “All liberal thinkers have had to reassess that attitude since 9/11 because the results of free association, free movement and free expression have put us all in danger in many ways, so everybody’s had to rethink their position” (from Wikipedia article on her film). This applies to her 2008 film “Incendiary”, from ThinkFilm, Optimum, and FilmFour.
A young mother (Michelle Williams) carries out an adulterous affair with a reporter Jasper (Ewan McGregor) while they watch a soccer match on widescreen TV in her London flat. Suddenly, there is an explosion, in the section where her husband, ordnance expert Lenny (Nicholas Gleaves) and young son attend.
The next scene places her in the wreckage of the stadium, looking for her family. The scene is quite graphic, and reminds one of a similar on in New Line’s “Final Destination”. Then Lenny’s boss Terrance (Matthew MacFayden) shows an interest in her as he tries to help, whereas Jasper helps finger the killer. Then the mother meets the teenage son of the supposed shooter and almost gets herself and him killed by British sharpshooters at Euston Station. It all comes full circle as she has another child (by Jasper) and composes a letter to Osama bin Laden about the rebuilding since the “May Day attack”.
The film makes a reasonable try at using storytelling to make a political argument (although it is based on a novel by Chris Cleave). Imagine a “fictitious” film where a female military officer in the Pentagon tries to contact her partner in the WTC before the Pentagon is itself attacked shortly. This film showed what the police activity around the stadium really looks like; no one has really done that yet with the Pentagon in Arlington on 9/11.
The film’s website is here.
Wikipedia attribution link for picture of the Underground