Things We Lost in the Fire (2007)

Overall rating from 1 to 100: 75

O Masterpiece (100)
X Excellent (75-99)
O Rental (60-74)
O OK (50-59)
O Mediocrity (30-49)
O Avoid (1-29)

Review by Jason Pyles / October 26, 2007

Jerry: Your dad was my best friend.

Harper: When?

Jerry: When I was your age ... and last week.

Such is the mostly pitch-perfect dialogue in “Things We Lost in the Fire,” a story about characters who try to overcome the most difficult challenges of their lives, one day at a time.

In modern-day Seattle, Brian (David Duchovny) and Audrey Burke (Halle Berry) have a blissful marriage and two kids, Harper (Alexis Llewellyn) who’s 10 and Dory (Micah Berry) who’s six. Their idyllic life together is permanently altered when Brian heroically tries to intervene during a domestic dispute and is murdered. (That was not a spoiler but common knowledge regarding the film’s premise.)

Brian’s lifelong friend and recovering heroine addict, Jerry (Benicio Del Toro), comes to the funeral and is asked to help the grieving family, which, of course, is mutually beneficial to him.

“Things We Lost in the Fire” could have been a masterpiece, perhaps a perfect 100, had it not tried so hard to “swing for the fence.” There are moments (unmistakably saccharine, bittersweet moments) when we can sense the film trying to manipulate us to tears (much like the scads of country songs whose last verse takes place in heaven). I will refrain from citing specific examples from the movie, in case you’re a sucker for such moments. Why spoil them for you, too?

But the film’s biggest problem and evidence of overextending an arty appeal to “Oscar” is the two parents’ abundant use of the “F-word.” Sure, many adults say that word – often, in fact. But “good,” intelligent parents, such as those depicted here, who have two sets of small, impressionable ears always listening, do not use such language with such fervor and frequency.

To the film’s credit, it attempts to travel unforeseen roads, surprising us by not becoming what we think it will inevitably become; but the plot’s alternate course is, at times, tiresome. Specifically, Audrey’s reaction to Jerry’s helpfulness seems improbable.

Though the movie is about love, friendship and the death of the family’s father, it is equally about Jerry’s attempt to overcome his heroine addiction. Berry’s acting is commendable, even excellent at times, but Del Toro’s nuanced performance is nothing less than Oscar-worthy. His screen presence alone is worth the price of admission.

Despite some exceptions, “Things We Lost in the Fire” shines with credibility, offering moments that feel exactly right: Reminiscent conversations around a table about the departed enable us to see that Jerry truly was Brian’s best friend. And we get to see other little details like the endearing sensitivities of a tender wife and child in response to an animal activist group’s commercial. These are inclusions of careful filmmakers.

But the movie’s most novel filmmaking technique is the subjective soundtrack that we hear while Jerry is listening to his blaring headphones. We hear them as he does – loudly. Then, when he removes them from his ears, his tunes reduce to small background noise, playing faintly from their source. There are also lots of close-ups of sad eyes, which are probably relevant in this narrative, albeit overdone.

At one point, the widowed Audrey asks another woman who also lost her true love, “Does it get better?” The answer: “It gets different,” which is also an accurate description of this film.

Directed by Susanne Bier
Halle Berry / Benicio Del Toro / David Duchovny
119 min. Drama
MPPA: R (for drug content and language)

Copyright 2007. 204