Jun 27 2008
Film Review: Things We Lost In The Fire
Starring: Benicio Del Toro, Halle Berry, and David Duchovny
Director: Susanne Bier
Grade: C-
Susanne Bier takes us into the world of a heroin addict in Jerry (Benicio Del Toro). His life was a mess until his best friend Brian (David Duchovny) is murdered. Jerry is just crushed by the fact that his oldest friend is now dead. Brian’s wife Audrey (Halle Berry) then invites Jerry to come live with her and her two kids. This is the next step in Jerry’s life, he gets a chance to get back on his feet and quit heroin. Jerry begins to somewhat play the father role of Brian and Audrey’s children, Harper and Dory.
Throughout the film, director Susanne Bier strategically shows flashbacks of Brian’s remaining days. Brian is a loving husband and father. What we see in the flashbacks are two main things: dispute over Jerry’s state of affairs (Brian seems to be the only one that sees Jerry as a human being; he never stopped being his friend during his stint with heroin), and Brian as a husband and father. Although Brian is this great guy, nobody in the film seemed to grieve over this guy. He is a great guy (he was murdered while breaking up a domestic dispute for crying out loud!). I had a hard time believing that he was missed, with the exception of one scene. For the most part, life carried on. I feel that Bier attempted to make this part of the film emotional, but just failed in doing so. The loss of an important character such as Brian is what makes the story. The film is about re-building. Brian plays an integral part of this film because his death results in Jerry coming to come and live with Audrey and the kids. Destruction is supposed to be a form of creation. Brian dies, Jerry is born again. What was strange during the film was the sexual tension between Jerry and Audrey that never seems to develop into anything. Could it be that both of them are in a vulnerable position and they need comfort from each-other? Who knows.
Lets talk about some of the good stuff about the film. First off, the cinematography was great. The acting from Benicio Del Toro and the young Alexis Llewellyn (Harper) was great as well. Del Toro plays an excellent heroin addict. This is one of the few strengths of the film. While the other main characters are moderately developed, Jerry’s character is far more important than the rest; which i don’t believe was the director’s intention. Jerry’s relapsing part of the film was very realistic and similar to what you would learn in a book about heroin withdrawal.
The screenplay on the other hand could use work. Now having said that, I did enjoy this film because i believe anyone that is down has the capacity to turn his or her life around with a lot of effort. Everything was in place for this film to be great, Susanne Bier just needed to follow it up a bit.
