Incendies

3 stars out of 5
I would have given it 3.5, but it was 130 minutes long, which is just too long. It is a French-Canadian production, based on a play by Wajdi Mouawad. It is opened up so cleverly that, for a change, you can't instantly tell it started life as a play. Until, in retrospect, you realize how intricately plotted it is. No one works that hard plotting a movie. There are twists galore, and one thing you can say about this film, which meditates on life, death, love, hate and the Middle East is that, for the most part, you don't see what's coming next. I enjoy that  in a film, so hats off  to directory and screenplay writer Denis Villeneuve. Here's a tip; don't bother trying to figure out which Middle East country it is. Its kind of like Lebanon, but the place names are made up and the politics are scrambled. I probably missed several plot points and I know I gave myself a headache trying to make the Christians, muslims, north, south, refugees and civil war line up with my (admittedly) limited knowledge of the area.