Secret Agent Gal Movie Reviews

Incendies *****

 

A daughter investigates her mother’s life and her own roots in the Oscar-nominated mystery Incendies. Denis Villeneuve writes and directs this suspenseful family drama that intertwines the daughter’s journey with scenes from her mother’s traumatic early years in the Middle East.

When their mother dies, grown twins Jeanne (Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin) and Simon (Maxim Gaudette) arrive for the reading of her will. They are stunned when Jean Lebel (Remy Girard), a notary public and their mother’s former boss, hands them two envelopes. Jeanne is asked to deliver a letter to their father. Simon is asked to deliver a letter to their brother.

Jeanne and Simon had no idea that their father was alive. They never knew they had a brother. Nawal Marwan (played by talented Belgian actress Lubna Azabal) had been quiet, and worked as a secretary. Bewildered, Jeanne tries to make sense of her mother’s words. If the twins deliver these messages, “the silence will be broken, a promise kept.”

Simon balks and remains in Montreal. He does not want to delve into the past. He’d rather abandon his family history and any unseemly details. The strain of his mother’s nervous illnesses has been enough for him. Simon urges Jeanne not to go.

A graduate student in mathematics, Jeanne seeks the advice of a professor. He compares mathematics to her complex relationship with her mother: “Now, you enter an entirely different adventure. The subject will be intractable problems that always lead to other problems, just as intractable. People around you will repeatedly say that your struggles are in vain. You’ll have no argument to defend yourself, for the work will be exhausting and complex. Welcome to pure mathematics, the land of loneliness.”

Jeanne insists on going alone if she must, compelled to hunt down the truth so her heart can be at peace. She sets out for the unnamed Middle Eastern country.

We witness the daughter following each clue, talking to people who knew Nawal, or knew of her. A group of village women is cruel and judgmental. Desormeaux-Poulin (Taking the Plunge) gives an intense but nuanced performance, filled with insatiable curiosity and growing dread. Much later when she faces danger, Simon rushes to her side to help complete the search. Gaudette (Polytechnique) conveys the male heart with pitch perfect acting.

Renowned Canadian actor Girard crafts a memorable character in Lebel, who guides and protects the twins. He assures them that their mother was of sound mind, but indelibly marked by her early years.

 

Nawal was beset by tragedy from early girlhood through the horrors of her country’s civil war. Key scenes from Nawal’s life are shown as Jeanne walks the same streets her mother once did. Azabal (Body of Lies) evokes great dignity which explodes into anger as she struggles to overcome unimaginably painful personal ordeals.

Nawal is rebuked by her Christian family when she falls in love with a Muslim. Her brothers track the lovers down in an orchard and murder her beloved. Later her grandmother helps her deliver a baby boy, who is quickly given up for adoption to save the family from shame. The grandmother tattoos three dots on the baby’s heel, an identifying mark. “I’ll find you again one day,” Nawal promises him.

Nawal is sent away to live with relatives. She becomes a student and political activist. Deciding to search for her son, she sets off on a bus filled with Muslims. When Christian extremists detain the group, Nawal pretends she is still a Christian to save herself. Helplessly, she watches as all aboard are massacred, flames exploding in the middle of the desert.

Rage takes over as Nawal joins an extremist group, assassinating a Christian leader while posing as a tutor. She is sentenced to 15 years in prison, where she is tortured and raped. Nawal survives by singing in solitary confinement. This enrages her captors. Jeanne and Simon eventually meet a midwife who worked at the prison. She remembers Nawal fondly as “The Woman Who Sings.”

Villeneuve defines the title Incendies as an inferno, “something totally destroyed, totally transformed . . . destruction that you cannot change afterwards.” Filmed in Montreal and Jordan, it is based on the play of the same name by the Lebanese-born writer Wajdi Mouawad. The scars that violence leaves, and its senselessness, are stark in Incendies’ explosive conclusion.

Beautiful and devastating, the film features wrenching imagery and ominous sound. As it opens, young Muslim boys are having their heads shaved, apparently being prepared for terrorist training. The eyes of one boy stare back into the camera, bottomless, empty.

“Death is never the end of the story,” Lebel reminds us. “There are always details.”

If you like Incendies, you might enjoy:  Nora’s Will; A Prophet; Lemon Tree.

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Incendies     2010  /  R  /  2 hours, 10 min

Cast Overview:  Lubna Azabal, Melissa Desormeaux-Poulin, Maxim Gaudette, Remy Girard, Abdelghafour Elaaziz, Allen Altman, Mohamed Majd, Nabil Sawalha, Baya Belal 

Director:  Denis Villeneuve

Genre:  Drama, Mystery, War, Foreign, Drama Based on the Play

Languages: French and Arabic with English subtitles

 

 

Rabbit Hole *****

 

The world is a minefield for Becca (Nicole Kidman), a grieving mother so on edge that almost anything sets her off.  When another mom at a support group says, “God must’ve wanted another angel,” Becca walks out.

Grief crosses unexpected and even delightful territory in Rabbit Hole, a drama about a mother and father mourning the loss of their son. Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway play by David Lindsay-Abaire, it was written by the playwright and director John Cameron Mitchell.

Fascinating from start to finish, Rabbit Hole is a deep and humbling look at loss. Becca tries to make sense of life in unique ways that sometimes seem alarming and even bizarre. 

Everything is about healing in Becca’s world. She plants flowers in neat rows. She avoids dinners with neighbors that might upset her. One morning she decides it’s time to remove Danny’s watercolors from the refrigerator door, to the chagrin of her husband Howie (Aaron Eckhart). It’s been eight months since their four-year-old ran out into the street after their dog.

Finally Becca recognizes Jason (Miles Teller), the teenager who was driving the car that hit her son.  She begins to follow his school bus, making sure he gets home safely. She imagines who Danny would have become. Jason confronts Becca at the library one day, and the two begin to spend time together at a local park. Becca checks out the book Jason had been reading, Parallel Universes.

Clichés are sidestepped in Rabbit Hole. Becca does not blame Jason. No one is a villain in this tragedy, yet everyone has been marked and transformed by it. The two sit side by side on a park bench, gazing around, exchanging words.

Art – in this case comic book art – helps them transcend sorrow. Jason creates his drawings with M.C. Escher-like, infinite patterns.  From each “rabbit hole” pop three faces. Some are angry, some are serene.  One face disappears, only to reappear. Becca is fascinated. She tells Jason one day, “Somewhere, I’m happy.” After the worst tragedy of her life, she looks to other levels of truth.   

 

How will Becca and Howie’s marriage survive? He wants to have another child. She wants to sell their home. They scream at each other. While Becca retreats into her own world, Howie continues to attend the support group. Howie befriends a mother there (excellent Sandra Oh). They park in the high school lot, smoking pot and giggling at nothing.

When Becca’s sister Izzy (Tammy Blanchard) becomes pregnant, Becca smiles wanly and congratulates her. Often, her words betray her real feelings. Izzy confronts Becca one day as the two receive pedicures.  Giancarlo Esposito portrays Izzy’s sympathetic partner.

Amazingly, quiet humor emerges in the film.  Becca bursts into tears when she spies Jason going to his first prom with a carload of high school friends. Mitchell's direction is nuanced and lovely.

Master actor Dianne Wiest is grating and oddly comforting as Becca’s mother. Nat learns to tiptoe around Becca’s “rules.” For example, she can mention the loss of her adult son (who overdosed on heroin), but never compare him to the sainted Danny. 

Nicole Kidman is at her career best in this complex, demanding role as Becca slowly begins to live again.

Eckhart’s character is an everyman who is defined in terms of his lost son.  Movingly he embodies a father’s grief, breaking down as he walks the dog that Danny loved so much.

If you like Rabbit Hole, you might enjoy:  The Other Woman; Mother; Winter's Bone.

Rabbit Hole   2010  /  PG-13  /  1 hour, 31 minutes

Cast Overview:  Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart, Dianne Wiest, Miles Teller, Tammy Blanchard, Sandra Oh, Giancarlo Esposito

Director:  John Cameron Mitchell

Genres:  Drama, Indie