The theatrical trailer for Things We Lost in the Fire gives the impression that the movie deals mostly with a blossoming romance between a grieving widow and her late husband’s best friend.
Things We Lost in the Fire: An Intense Examination
The actual film, however, provides an intense examination of several people whose lives have been turned upside down by the unexpected death, particularly the emotionally unstable widow, Audrey (Berry), and the victim’s life-long friend, Jerry (Del Toro), a heroin addict. These two central characters devote their energies into saving – rather than seducing – each other.
After her wealthy and successful husband (David Duchovny shown in frequent flashbacks) is killed in a random attack while trying to help a woman being beaten on the street, Audrey struggles to keep her remaining family safe, including a ten-year-old daughter and six-year-old son. In her grief and loneliness, she invites Jerry (now homeless and mopping floors at a methadone center in order to have a roof over his head at night) to live in her remodeled garage. The garage had previously caught on fire from a faulty remote control, and many of the family’s material possessions were lost in the fire.
Powerful and Convincing Performances
In befriending Jerry, Audrey embraces one of the few remaining links to her late husband, despite the fact that she has always hated him for his drug addiction. When she realizes that her husband saw, and her children (Alexis Llewellyn and Micah Berry), a recovering drug addict (Alison Lohman), and neighbor (John Carroll Lynch) now see good qualities in Jerry, she becomes enraged and irrationally kicks him out of the house. This rejection fuels another self-destructive heroin binge for Jerry that sends him back to the seediest neighborhoods of Seattle looking for his next fix.
Berry and Del Toro deliver powerful and convincing performances in which shared grief and inherent similarities are brought to the surface. Even though Berry is black and Del Toro is Puerto Rican, their ethnicity has no relevance to the story and has nothing to do with how their characters were developed by screenwriter Allan Loeb. Their mutual needs – bordering on co-dependence – go way beyond physical attraction or a convenient romance.
Halle Berry Ready for Her Close-up
Deeply moving, though occasionally manipulative (you can feel the emotional setup before each “fall”), this intimate work uses close, handheld camera work to draw the audience into each scene. These extreme close-ups may reveal more than you’ve ever wanted to know about Berry and Del Toro: eyeball veins, facial pores, facial hair, teeth stains, and other flaws.
In addition, some scenes drag a little giving the movie an experimental film festival kind of feeling, despite the big-name stars attached to the project. Things We Lost in the Fire provides gripping drama and fine acting, but don’t come to this movie prepared for a love story; instead, come prepared with a good supply of tissues.
- Things We Lost in the Fire
- Director: Susanne Bier
- Run time: 117 minutes
- MPAA Rating: R (drug use and language)
To learn more about dramatic features, read Movie Review of Fracture and Half Nelson on DVD.
Leslie C. Halpern - Leslie C. Halpern, Romantic Films/Comedies Topic Editor, authored Passionate About Their Work, Reel Romance, & Dreams on Film.
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