 | |
List Price: $19.99 | | Label: Dreamworks Video
Salesrank: 28853
Released: March 4, 2008 |
| Our Price: $3.24 |
| Used Price: $1.30 |
|
MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
|
Editorial Review:
Academy Award winners Halle Berry and Benicio Del Toro star in director Susanne Bier’s (the Oscar-nominated "After the Wedding") powerful new drama "Things We Lost in the Fire" Audrey Burke (Berry) is reeling from the shock of the news that has just been delivered to her door by the local police: her warm and loving husband Brian (David Duchovny), the father of their two young children, has been killed in a random act of violence. Once anchored by the love and comforts of their 11-year marriage, Audrey is now adrift. Impulsively, she turns to Jerry Sunborne (Del Toro), a down-and-out addict who has been her husband’s close friend since childhood. Desperate to fill the painful void caused by her husband’s death, Audrey invites Jerry to move into the room adjacent to their garage in the hope that he can help her and her children cope with their sudden loss. Jerry is facing a daily battle to stay off drugs, but in his unexpected role as surrogate parent and friend to Audrey’s son and daughter he finds a core of inner resilience. As Jerry and Audrey navigate grief and denial, their fragile bonds are constantly tested. Working together, however, they discover the strength to move forward.
Description of Things We Lost in the Fire:
"Dad, what does 'fluorescent' mean?" asks a winsome young Dory of his doting dad, played by David Duchovny. Pondering a moment, dad answers, "It means, 'lit from within." "So Dad, am I fluorescent?'" "Yes, Dory, you are." The touching, brief moment telegraphs the bond Duchovny's character, Brian, has with his family, including wife Audrey (Halle Berry) and daughter Harper (Alexis Llewellyn), and the love that radiates through and around him. When tragedy strikes early in the film, Berry and the children must acknowledge, and somehow heal, the hole left in their lives. And in that human effort, so little explored in American films, Things We Lost in the Fire holds a luminous candle to the hope left in life--sometimes when all that seems to be left is hope. Directed by the talented Danish director Susanne Bier (Brothers), Fire is allowed to unfold almost in real time as grief washes over the family, and Berry gives one of her most memorable performances, captured mostly in tiny details that will hit the viewer in the soul. Her eyes, the carriage of her head, her slim shoulders appearing to buckle under the weight of her sorrow--Berry is well directed here and shows that her performance in Monster's Ball was no fluke. As she begins to connect with Brian's childhood friend Jerry (Benicio Del Toro), a new family web is woven--irregular, to be sure, but strong and comforting. Other affecting performances are given by the talented charater actor John Carroll Lynch, as Brian's friend and neighbor, and by the heartbreaking Llewellyn, an actress of stunning range for a child so young. Things We Lost in the Fire holds a torch in the deepest darkness, and lets souls connect--a rare gift indeed. --A.T. Hurley
Things We Lost in the Fire Reviews:
An underrated and unheralded movie. 
2009-09-16 - I was really suprised by this film. The acting is strong and obviously well directed. Del Torro, Duchoveny, and Berry really shine here. Berry has chops that she seems to not get credited for very often. This film explores very profound issues and themes like grief, friendship, addiction, and our fleet and seemingly fragile existence on this planet. How do we relate to our loved ones, the people we don't really like, and strangers, and how those relationships evolve in the face of some of these themes/issues? It's that rare combination of the material asking the right questions with the right performers and performances. It seems very real to me, and I'm very critical of that realistic element of a film. Do I buy what this character is saying, and is this situation real enough to warrant the investment of my attention? I think this production warrants anyone's attention who appreciates it when they're seeing more than just a walk through, or even a good try. This film just about nails it.
Surprisingly Good!
2009-06-16 - Not a major Halle Berry fan I was sceptical if she could carry a 'heavy' role like this but she blew the audience away as did her fellow academy award winner (Benicio Del Toro)
A heavy topic and a very sad setting nevertheless the story was told with such intensity and dare I say in such a 'non Hollywood manner' ... by the oscar nominated Danish Director Bier who had already previously shined in many movies and is an up and coming director. This was the (almost) mainstream version of her highly acclaimed dogme movie 'Celebration' without going too mainstream.
Excellent story telling and acting performances made this a truly amazing movie that deserve much more credit at the box office and award ceremonies than it received. Truly a movie to take time out to see.
Soft, delicate and very moving despite its clichéd construction...
2009-04-06 - Susanne Bier's 2004 masterpiece `Brodre' was far and away one of the best films I've seen this decade. Having seen that recently again I decided that, despite my preconceived notions of her English film `Things we Lost in the Fire' (mainly that I find Berry rather uneven as an actress and doubted her ability to sell the film), I really wanted to see it.
So I did, this past Saturday.
While I have some reservations about the plot in general, I have to admit that this film was very moving and at times very, very sincere. The acting is nearly flawless on all accounts, which is not shocking when looking at Del Toro (who is one of the finest actors working today) but it is rather shocking when looking at Berry. She blew me away here with her ability to just sink into her role without the seemingly forced spasms of uncontrollable grief she exhibited in her Oscar winning performance in `Monster's Ball'.
The film begins with a tragedy, as Audrey Burke loses her husband in a horrific crime. Left to handle the raising of her two children alone, not to mention picking up the pieces of her shattered existence, Audrey is moved to offer her husband's best friend (and recovering drug addict) Jerry a place to stay. She needs to help around the house but mostly she needs someone there, to talk to and to feel connected to. As much as she at one point despised him, the reality is that he is the closest connection she has to her late husband. As time goes by their bond grows, and her children begin to move on as Jerry takes the place of their father. While this is a good thing, it also lays another burden on Audrey as she witnesses her husband being replaced; his memory slowly fading from their lives.
I'll just blurt this out right here; the film has its fare share of clichéd plot points. It follows that general formula of `things have to go great then get really bad before they can reach the happy ending' and I really was hoping for a different structure to this film, especially since the film opened so strong. I also thought that the way the script handled Jerry's addiction was rather `by the books' (you can smell that relapse coming from a mile away, but honestly, I don't think he ever stopped using), but Del Toro elevates that character so much it doesn't really matter in the end.
Yes, the acting makes this film a definite MUST-SEE. Halle Berry and Benicio Del Toro are practically flawless here, both of them completely understanding how to play to their strengths and deliver a subtle, moving and realistic portrait of two lives spun out of control by the demise of a mutual friend. Moreso than that, Brian (Audrey's husband) was their rock. He was the only person still standing strong beside Jerry, and he was Audrey's world and her only comfort. Together, Jerry and Audrey find the strength to move past this terrible moment in their lives. Alexis Llewellyn is also marvelous as Audrey's daughter Harper, and John Carroll Lynch has some soft and sincere moments as their neighbor Howard.
This is a very good film with some very memorable performances. Sure, it could have been stronger, had the script been a little less conventional and a little more `un-Hollywood' (I mean, `Brodre' was as `un-Hollywood' as they come, so I was really looking forward to that same process here) but the acting is a saving grace, and Bier's delicate direction makes this film poignant and moving.
Sucked Me In...Very Intense! 
2009-01-18 - The title of the movie wasn't much attraction for me. I never heard of the movie before, I just happened to have it on TV. I started watching it and it sucked me in! I mean I could NOT stop watching it. I love movies but I must admit, when I'm at home watching them I tend to get up and do something...never happened with this movie! It was so intense...so passionate...and plenty of great acting. Pleasantly surprised...and yes, you will need a kleenex or two.
Things gained in the Fire
2009-01-17 - Thirty something, ex legal eagle, now drug-addict assumes the role of his recently murdered loyal friend. That is, he becomes surrogate parent to the deceased's two gorgeous kids, confidant to his wife and neighbour, and slums in his rennovated garage in which all family memorablia has been recently incinerated. So for the bones. But it's the flesh that grips the heart. The child actors are winning and the adults give strong, nuanced performances, each coping with deep tissue healing as they attempt to reach into the dilemna of the other's grieving. The see-saw of who is healing who is central to the drama as Halle Berry flirts with the escapism of heroin. Her growing intimacy with Benicio Del Torro laeads him to relapse. That a wreck that is De Torro can draw such eye candy, not once but twice,(the rescuer at group therapy) is really the stuff of movies. Berry sure got the pick of the straws in the family gene pool.Then again, we're reminded that the beautiful too are vulnerable when on the inside they 'feel ugly'. The hapless neighbour, on retreat from a poisonous marriage is more plausible. I'm not one to complain about the presence of glamouour eye fodder. But their presence, the overuse of closeups of Halle's eye, and the overought alley location of drug deriliction taint this sensitive movie with saccharine.
