The first-time American feature from Danish helmer Susanne Bier, 'Things We Lost in the Fire' is a competent human drama livened up considerably by Benecio Del Toro's fire-plug performance as a junkie forced into the life of a bereaved widow looking for any last connections to her husband.
Widely known outside of America for her films 'After the Wedding' and 'Open Hearts' among others, producer Sam Mendes championed Bier's signature style for the film which would have seemingly been a perfect fit for her unique handheld camera-work. Bier likes to sweep and dart the camera around attempting to find a visual gateway into the actors/characters emotional space.
This has worked beautifully in the past but only sporadically succeeds here with her trying to compensate for the Hollywood gloss with even more dynamic moves, meaning we get a lot of ostentatious shots of eyeballs. Still, central performances from Del Toro and Halle Berry worked regardless of how their framed.
The film starts off with Audrey Burke (Halle Berry) just trying to survive the day of her husband's funeral when she suddenly realizes she forgot to invite somebody very important to her husband Brian (David Duchovny, who shows up in extended flashbacks). Chain-smoking and wearing a suit slightly too big, an obviously out-of-place Jerry Sunborne (Del Toro) stays on the sidelines of the reception clearly uncomfortable.
We learn that Jerry and Brian grew up together and while Brian went on to become a successful real estate developer; Jerry's life took a tragic, heroin-addicted turn. A scene shortly before Brian's death reveals Brian showing up at Jerry's flophouse, forcing him out for dinner and leaving him behind some groceries - Brian is the only one that hasn't given up on Jerry despite wife Audrey's consistent objections.
When Brian gets senselessly killed when helping out a woman getting beat by her husband on the street, his murder devastates both Audrey, who has to deal with both the grief and their two children by herself, and Jerry, who realizes that the one person that didn't exile him is now gone.
Emotionally trapped in her upscale Seattle home, she's desperate for any connection to Brian and decides that helping out Jerry would provide some much-needed closure. So she tracks down Jerry and invites him to stay at their guesthouse under the guise that he can eventually find a job and help her out financially with the rent (the house is actually completely paid for).
This, of course, results in an emotionally cathartic relationship between the two, but thankfully and bravely platonic, who eventually become close through their mutual love for the same man. Allan Loeb's screenplay serves it's purpose but nothing truly unexpected happens other than not having our two protags not come together romantically at the end. The film's momentum is driven solely by the conviction of the actors, particularly Del Toro.
Halle Berry shows some shades previously shown in her Oscar-winning 'Monster's Ball' but this role doesn't require much more than a lot of vacant stares. Del Toro gets the heavy-lifting along with a powerful relapse sequence and he manages to keep the viewers interest even if everything else in the film slows down to a trickle.
The film is presented with a 1080p AVC 2.35:1 encode (the same as the previously-released HD-DVD) and the film's visual style actually presents quite well in high-def. Despite Bier's slightly annoying overuse of close-ups, these types of shots always give us great detail and texture. The color palette used is appropriately muted so there's no real visual fireworks here but this is a fine encode. A Dolby Digital TrueHD 5.1 track is provided and does fine with the dialogue-heavy track.
A few special features are included starting off with a 20-minute 'A Discussion about Things We Lost in the Fire, nine minutes of 'Deleted Scenes' and the films theatrical trailer. The films meager extras are not too surprising considering the film's modest box office performance.
'Things We Lost in the Fire' is a perfectly acceptable human drama that may prove a bit too plodding for most with one strong highlight being Del Toro's layered performance as a drug addict. Blu-ray tech specs are decent; however, so fans of the cast may want to give this is a rental.
Things We Lost In the Fire [Blu-ray] is now available at Amazon . Visit the DVD database for more information.
Your Talkback on this Story