Things We Lost In The Fire Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES
Hope comes with letting go.
A recent widow invites her husband's troubled best friend to live with her and her two children. As he gradually turns his life around, he helps the family cope and confront their loss.
| Halle Berry | Audrey Burke |
| Benicio Del Toro | Jerry Sunborne |
| David Duchovny | Steven Burke |
| Alexis Llewellyn | Harper Burke |
| Micah Berry | Dory Burke |
| John Carroll Lynch | Howard Glassman |
| Alison Lohman | Kelly |
| Robin Weigert | Brenda |
| Omar Benson Miller | Neal |
| Paula Newsome | Diane |
| Sarah Dubrovsky | Spring |
| Maureen Thomas | Grandma Ginnie Burke |
| Patricia Harras | Howard's Wife |
| V.J. Foster | Distressed Man |
| Caroline Field | Teresa Haddock |
| Susanne Bier |
7.40 out of 10 (1099 votes)
Visitor Reviews
a BEAUTIFUL film!! C'est un très, très bon film !! Bueno!! Bellissimo!! Wunderschön!!
posted on 15 Aug 2009I found this film so good that I gave it a rating of 10 as I can't see how it could have been made any better!Any different and it (probably) wouldn't have the same impact, a bit longer, would've been dragging it, any shorter and it would've been incomplete! A different cast – hmmm… Unimaginable! Most importantly, the order in which the events have been played was needed to be done that way for the characters develop, and, more importantly, for us to feel for them.Halle Berry is sooo natural and perfect as Audrey Burke that by the end, you forget that she's an actress and you'd address her as Mrs. Burke! The same goes for her two kids, more so Alexis Llewellyn, who plays Harper, her 10-yr old daughter. Under the quiet demeanour of Harper, lies an intelligent, reflective person who knows she has to play the role of the more mature 'older sister' yet can't stop herself from feeling emotionally wrought under the circumstances. She was one of my favourite characters in the film!Then there's the amazing Benicio Del Toro!! Haven't seen him play a better character role than this one.. Heroin addiction hasn't been portrayed in a harsher light since Requiem for a Dream! It truly shows you how, the 'lows', outlast and definitely beat the temporary highs that one can get and he totally lives the part of the junkie trying to rehabilitate himself, fighting his daily battle with temptation and addiction. The movie almost revolves around him as much as it does around Halle Berry but even the seemingly small role played by David Duchovny is not the least bit insignificant, as his absence is felt throughout the film.All in all, it's a 'complete' film that doesn't go overboard. All the emotions are well-measured before they are displayed – no excess. There's joy and then there's sorrow, there's loss then there's denial, there's strength and weakness, there's hatred and then there's love and affection. It's as realistic as any drama can be and it's narrated through the roles that each of them has to play with these emotions. Could've been a contender for the Oscars.. for its lovely message, and for its goodness! But judging by the way things went down this year, this film didn't grab the attention of the judges as there just wasn't enough blood! ;-)
Fin film.
posted on 13 Aug 2009Nice film. A little slow. Strange use of old cut up techniques and other old film tricks. Half dogma and hand-held. Loud music in a Walkman, else only acoustic guitar. Clumsy cut in the beginning start and back to start, and back to before start several times.Where are Susanne going with these steps ? It lasts for more than any hour without any purpose.Halle plays great. Susanne Bier has in her earlier movies used to have a layer of "under played" fun and irony, which makes you smile all the way home from the movie theater. This movie show her as an ordinary filmmaker. Too much under the big pres big money puts on the director. Back home in Denmark she made movies taking much more chances. This one is no fun at all. And the future for our main characters is absolutely uncertain.
Tour de Force performances with only slight forcing of believability
posted on 13 Aug 2009I deducted one point for credibility being stretched a little thin at times along with a little heavy handedness in the moral of the story department ("accept the good").David Decuvney's character especially practically sprouts wings as the consummate good guy who dies protecting a strange woman from her abusive husband and leaves his own family in shambles as a result, including a drug-addict friend who was dependent upon their friendship as the only attachment or affection he had. I also wondered why it had to be a white guy married to a black woman with mixed kids. Would he have been less heroic as a black man? Although I am glad they didn't go the OJ route (black guy, blonde white female) that seems to be all the rage as news anchors since Nichole's murder. But I digress.As I say the performances, including Decuvney's, are so powerful that you forgive (well, almost) the saccharine sweetness of some points. And there are enough dark, gritty moments to almost balance the too sweet mouthfuls out. When she finally faces her loss, Berry's performance of trauma almost ranks right up there with those of Sally Field in Steel Magnolias and Pacino in Godfather 3.A great movie, great performances and a worthwhile (though force-fed at times) message, if you can overlook the too sweet mouthfuls and...ummm...accept the good.
Grief and Addiction Intertwine in an Affecting Drama Bolstered by Del Toro's Towering Performance
posted on 03 Aug 2009If you've seen her 2006 melodrama, "After the Wedding", you can clearly tell this is a Susanne Bier film as her signature style can be seen in the hand-held camera-work, the unexpected jump cuts and the heavy use of close-ups on the physical features of her principal actors during the most cathartic moments. The Danish-born director is an apt choice to guide this somber 2007 drama dealing with grief and addiction in the aftermath of an unexpected death. Showing the unfiltered responses to life-altering experiences appears to be Biers' specialty since that is exactly the focus of both films. This time, the set-up sounds more appropriate as the subject of a Lifetime TV-movie, but despite some severe contrivances, first-time screenwriter Allan Loeb is able to elevate the film by imbuing the situation with surprising candor and making the principal characters credibly flawed. Bier's distorted timeline is a bit of a nuisance at the outset, although this luckily becomes less of an issue as the movie progresses.The plot hinges on the Good Samaritan death of Steven Burke, a successful Seattle-based real estate developer whose sense of decency and devotion inadvertently triggers a series of events leading to the tragedy. Left behind are two broken people - his angry, emotionally fragile wife Audrey, who has two small children to raise by herself now, and his close friend Jerry Sunborne, a one-time lawyer who has become a full-blown junkie constantly strung out on heroin in a depressing SRO unit downtown. Even though Audrey is distrustful of Jerry, Steven has remained loyal - a point of contention that after Steven's death, motivates Audrey to invite Jerry to stay in her half-finished garage after the funeral. Their relationship becomes confused but at least, it does not make a predictable turn toward a romance. Instead, we witness Audrey's almost instantaneous dependency on Jerry and her subsequent resentment of him when he becomes a father figure for her children. From that point, it becomes gradually clearer that both need to move forward with their lives in light of their personal limitations.As Jerry, Benicio Del Toro inhabits his role to maximum effect, bringing a haunted quality that he leavens with his natural charisma. He is particularly harrowing during his character's detoxification, and you can't help but root for his recovery no matter how uncertain it may be. Finally challenged by a role comparable to her breakthrough in Marc Forster's "Monster's Ball", Halle Berry does an admirable job in portraying Audrey's prickliness while maintaining a sympathetic core. At the same time, she is saddled with more of the plot contrivances than Del Toro and has a breakdown scene that feels a bit too calculated. David Duchovny's natural likability helps make Steven more than just an elliptical plot device, though his screen time is understandably limited to brief flashbacks. Alexis Llewellyn and Micah Berry (no relation to Halle) believably play Audrey's children, while John Carroll Lynch (the prime suspect in "Zodiac") provides welcome comedy relief as the Burkes' jogging neighbor, a real estate broker who wants to help Jerry turn his life around. Even though his character is supportive to the point of being idealized, Omar Benson Miller effectively plays Audrey's too-good-to-be-true younger brother, and Alison Lohman ("White Oleander") shows up late in the film as a persistently inquisitive recovering addict.The 2008 DVD is relatively sparse on extras. There is no commentary track from Bier or the principal actors, but there is a twenty-minute making-of featurette, "A Discussion About 'Things We Lost in the Fire'", which features comments from Bier, Loeb, producers Sam Mendes ("American Beauty") and Sam Mercer, Berry, Del Toro, Duchovny, Lohman and Miller. Most of the focus is on Bier and Mendes who discuss getting the film off the ground, how she works with the actors and how the look of the film was achieved. Running about nine minutes, seven deleted scenes are included, mainly filler dialogue scenes that were understandably excised except for one with Jerry and a fellow addict out on the streets. The last extra is the original theatrical trailer. By the way, the film's title refers to Audrey's emotional catharsis when she reads an inventory list of things that were destroyed in the garage during an electrical fire prior to Steven's death.
That was a good one!
posted on 01 Aug 2009Wow!What a story!Benicio del Toro is brilliant as a chain smoking heroine addict.He proved once again after his great performance in "Traffic" that he can be one of the big ones in Hollywood.Halle Berry's acting is also outstanding worth the comparing of her Oscar awarded play in "Monster's ball", but if this movie has an Oscar worthy performance its definitely Del Toro's.This is one of the best films from 2007 and I am giving it only 9 stars because there are some weak spots in the plot that are not exactly realistic: Berry's character invites her dead husbands best friend in her bed to help her get asleep by massaging her ear.Del Toro's character (once a lawyer)started using cheap types of drugs to end up as a heroine junkie. Nevertheless this is a movie worth seeing!
Wow...that's all I can say
posted on 28 Jul 2009I have to be honest, I didn't know what I was getting into when I decided to watch this movie. I'd fought the urge to view it in the theater and waiting until DVD release. Glad I did. Not because I would have been disappointed with my theater experience but I would have been a tiny bit embarrassed at all the sobbing I was doing while watching this movie.So many little things that were touching. I've not ever watched a movie like this. EVER. I haven't sobbed like this since Awakenings when Robert DeNiro's character was returning to his catatonic state.Halle Berry and especially Benicio Del Toro (who knew he could be such a nice guy???) gave stellar performances. It was an all around great film, full of love and life and learning. Critical lessons being given and received by all involved in the plot. I can't say enough good about it.The only disappointment I have now is that it wasn't more publicized and therefore did not get the recognition it deserved in the box office. But I've learned that most of the best films that I've loved have been box office stinkers!
One Day at a Time...
posted on 26 Jul 2009Sometimes you have to view movies one day at a time. As a film buff, I have to take the good with the bad. Danish director Susanne Bier's first American venture, "Things We Lost in the Fire" is one of those surprisingly good human dramas that often gets lost in the shuffle and doesn't receive the credit it deserves.When Audrey (Halle Berry) loses her husband (David Duchovny) in a tragic Good Samaritan act gone bad, she deals with her grief in an unexpected way by inviting his drug-addicted best friend Jerry (Benicio Del Toro) to come live with her and her two young children while he "gets on his feet." Featuring a music score designed to remind people of "21 Grams" (which also starred Del Toro and played with many of the same themes) and interesting cinematography full of extreme close-ups and small visual details designed to evoke intimacy and realism, "Things We Lost in the Fire" delicately mirrors Audrey's grief process against Jerry's rocky recovery.The film is far from perfect as it sometimes deals with subjects (especially the scenes where Jerry is withdrawing from heroin) in a clichéd manner. Berry also struggles as she seems to underact in some of the more poignant scenes as a way to balance her overacting in some of the more theatrical scenes. However, her performance as an organic whole is very strong, and her character and her family feel and look "real." The things they say and the way they deal with their situations are raw and heartfelt without ever being sappy or sensationalistic. The kids are naturalistic, and they actually look like they could be the children of Berry and Duchovny. Del Toro is once again a revelation, and his performance speaks volumes with his mannerisms and facial expressions as he attempts to reconcile his sad past with a hopeful future. Sadly, his tour de force was overlooked by every end of the year awards in 2007.The bread and butter, however, is in the small details. "Things We Lost in the Fire" uses visual motifs, side stories, character foils, mirroring, and nuanced repetition in dialog as ways to develop grander themes. This is the stuff of great novels, and rarely do we find it attempted in film. What could have easily been dismissed as a melodramatic weeper turns out instead to be something quite good. The overlapping closing scenes where Berry speaks not a word while coming in from the rain, and Del Toro delivers a rehab monologue that gives quite possibly the most honest insight into addiction and recovery ever captured on screen, is a hauntingly hopeful mosaic of small moments. Yes, there were some moments of formulaic Hollywood gobbily-gook and some moments of strained drama, but these closing moments are real. They are good, and we as human beings (as film goers) have to learn to accept the good.
A film that shows that character flaws can be a plus for the pleas of human relations.
posted on 08 Jul 2009The characters were real, the plot simply complex, and the directing unique. There was a tremendous amount of symbolism in the filming and in the characters. One comment about the extremely close up of just one eye, which occurred often, not by mistake. The saying, "the eye is the window to the soul", is what is represented here. Several references to the "soul" were made throughout, from the bottom's of feet to what lays in the heart, the extreme close up to the eye was yet one more portal to get into the soul, because at the end of the day, there is more than one way to enter, and not always the conventional one or the obvious. That is the crux of this film, beyond coping, and compensating and trying to be something that you are not.... sometimes just breathing in and out, is enough, and remembering why you are here, and coming to terms with the concept that you have worth. is reason enough to get out of the bed. But to have someone else think you are worthy, might even give you reason to shower too. If you have ever experienced loss, you can understand these daily struggles and appreciate the explicit non-perfection I call human.
Things Lost, Things Gained
posted on 30 Jun 2009I am a huge fan of Benicio Del Toro, this is a movie that shows why he should have more starring roles. His facial expressions are perfect, alternating love, sadness, despair and ultimately, hope.Halle Berry does an excellent job as a well to do wife who has to cope with sudden loss and raising her kids.I am not a David Duchovney fan, but will admit he is well cast in this. A great supporting role from Omar Benson Miller as Halle's younger brother.POSSIBLE SPOILER: A film dealing with death, it is uplifting. A film about escapism through drugs, it is about hope, second chances and coping. A film about pain, it is also about love. Realistic, endearing and enjoyable. I recommend it.
One of the best acting of the year
posted on 06 Jun 2009One of the best acting performances of the year! I can't tell movie watchers too much about it than to not think about it, just get your car keys, get in the car and go see it, or rent it. It is definitely the best story i have seen in a long time, and not to mention the fantastic acting of Benicio Del Toro. He was real and very believable. His acting should have been nominated for an Oscar. Please don't take your children with you, it is definitely not a children's movie. Things we lost in the fire is a movie you will often talk about. If you agree with me after you have seen it please come and visit me at: http://peoplesaward.blogspot.com
Sad events that change lives
posted on 21 May 2009When a loved one dies the ones left behind deal with that in different ways. The story is not more than that and a great many other films have been made about just the same kind of topic. It is quite easily explained: it is the strongest emotions that make for the most easy to feel films, the ones that have the largest emotional impact on the audience.This film is no different than most other films that deal with the death of a loved one. It tells it story by jumping backward and forward through time a few times but never so much that it becomes distracting. If anything, it brings the story even more to life actually. It is easy to feel for the characters - even though a number of them have so little screen time it is questionable whether they should have been on screen at all. Personally I think at least the grandmother could have been left out - nothing extra was brought with the few minutes she was on the screen.The one thing against this film is that it does not crawl out of the trench of mediocre films and that is a sad thing for it could have been a fair bit better. It's an enjoyable, if lightly depressing, watch, but that's it. Nothing to think about, nothing to ponder, nothing to discuss with friends and family. Once the credits roll by it's over and done with.6 out of 10 fires burning
Eyeballs and more Eyeballs
posted on 07 May 2009Maybe there was a deeper meaning to these incessant close-ups of eyes, but even after some reflection I fail to get it.Del Toro & Berry are adequate in this film. Not terrific. I never forgot they were 'acting', not for one second. The kids were adorable and rang true to life for me.However, more could have been made of some minor parts in the film and more of a development of the connections between the characters.For instance, there was no foundation for the relationship between the brother (played by Omar Benson Miller - who bears an uncanny resemblance to Forrest Whittaker) and Berry, his afore mentioned sister.Alison Lohman as a recovering addict was a highlight as was John Carroll Lynch as a neighbour who made the most of a small role. I never did get the connection between him and Del Toro, though.Which brings me to Del Toro as a lawyer in his pre-heroin days. As he was mono-syllabic throughout the film this just didn't ring true at all. Surely a glimmer of intelligence would shine through? And a secondary career possibility fizzled off like a lost thread.No Hollywoodland ending though and I was grateful for that. And where on earth did Brenda fit in? Sister? Friend? She was always hanging about uselessly. Along with the brother.6 out of 10.PS And I really didn't like the way smoking was pushed in the film.
Accept the Good
posted on 03 May 2009Greetings again from the darkness. Very good melodrama from Scandanavian director Susanne Bier. The film is intentionally slow moving ... just like real life tragedy. Although we could have been beaten over the head with the cute as heck kids, the story is actually more focused on the heroin addicted best friend played by Benecio del Toro. This makes the point that strength can come from many sources.Halle Berry gives her best performance since "Monster's Ball" (yes even better than "Catwoman"). We feel her happiness, pain, desperation and hope. The cute kids are played by an amazing 11 yr old Alexis Llewellyn and Micah Berry (not her real life son). Also strong is Alison Lohman, who just doesn't work enough these days. However the strongest performance is by Benecio. I am not sure if the role was written for him or if he just perfectly captures best friend Jerry. It is most complicated role and requires enormous depth.I definitely recommend the film thanks to its basis in reality and fine performances and terrific direction. However, I will qualify it by saying that I don't believe it is quite in the class of "21 Grams"
Amazing Script Destroyed
posted on 27 Apr 2009I read this script and was moved in the same way that Alvin Sargent moved me in "Ordinary People" years ago. It's the same quiet drama about humans coping with extraordinary life change and was written as deftly. However, unlike "Ordinary People", "Things" was directed like a music video or a druggie movie with lots of smash cuts, hand held camera movements, and extreme close ups of eyeballs which distracted from the drama rather than trusting it and enhancing it. What a shame. A lovely script about people is made so rarely and then they give it to someone that cuts to an eyeball as a reaction shot? This must have been a heart break for Allan Loeb, the writer. I know it would have been for me...
Bit Of A Confusing Title, But That Is The Most I Can Say That Is Negative
posted on 25 Apr 2009The title refers to a conversation had at a group dinner towards the end of the movies-there had been a fire in the family's garage and they lost material things- a bike, pictures, photo albums-and the husband. Brian pointed out to the family that they had each other and that is what mattered.The movie was slow going, but satisfying. There was no Hollywood quick rehab recovery, rather a process of Jerry accepting not only the need to get clean properly, but why he needs to do so.Brian's death was so tragic-a good Samaritan deed that cost him his life. Jerry states he died a hero and he was very correct.The chemistry between Audrey and Brian was awesome. There was absolutely no focus on the fact they were an interracial couple-which I thought was great-the focus was on the love they had for each other and seeing this made the loss of Brian so terrible.The very cute relationship between the children and Jerry was sweet, although I had moments of squeamishness at the idea of someone so distanced from reality holding a conversation with a 6 year old child and then the adults laughing about it later. Aside from that, the movies was very planted in reality.There is no wonder cure for Jerry. His fellow NA member and eventual friend, Kelly, shows admiration and concern in a healthy way-Jerry isn't a replacement for drugs, he is someone she genuinely likes, and helps Audrey with the detox process. Kelly is the one who helps Audrey find Jerry when he becomes a recidivist. The scenes of the detox are pretty spot on. Neal, Audrey's loyal and amazing older brother is very well played, helping Brian's friend is done with absolutely no questions and everyone seems linked by this strength.The pace comes off as slow, however having experienced losing my husband, I can say that this actually is how you feel-time seems unreal and uneasy. Audrey's grief and anger are well played.Worth a watch, I would say 8 stars out of 10.
Between Art and Hollywood
posted on 17 Apr 2009I very much liked the latest films of danish director Susanne Bier - from "Open Hearts" to "After the wedding".So I was waiting for her first American film with a mixture of anticipation and anxiety. Would she be able to keep her style or would it be "hollywoodized"? The answer is : Yes and Yes.It is a typical Bier- drama: Strong,true in its emotions and feelings.Bier has always been interested in the fragility of human life and emotions and so the films deals with loss,fear,hope,helplessness and the search for emotional affection. Again a character has to take responsibility in a new found family. Benicio del Toro and Halle Berry play two persons devastated by the death of a third,who try to stabilize their lives with the help of each other.Luckily the film never succumbs to the easy solution of a conventional romance and stays open till the end.The acting generally is excellent,also in minor roles by Duchovny and Lohman, but it's really del Toro's film.In every pore of his face we can feel the fight of a drug-addict to get clean and stay so. But the film also has its drawbacks.As a member of the Dogma Movement Bier always had a penchant for extreme close-ups.This can be very effective,but here she clearly overdid it.The amount of mostly eyes, cheeks and hands takes away the concentration of the viewer and makes the film in parts too slow.The development of the scenario is sometimes schematic and predictable.The smoothing influence of Hollywood is clearly noticeable.I would have liked to see this film as a danish production, written by Anders Thomas Jensen and played by Mikkelsen and S.B.Knudsen in the main roles.I'm sure the result would be rougher and nearer to life.What also annoyed me was the character of Duchovny: He is way too perfect, a superhuman good samaritan.To resume: For a Hollywood drama the film is quite good, for a Bier film it is slightly disappointing.
A Good Powerful Movie
posted on 07 Apr 2009When I read the title of this film I thought um,alrighty then,because it kind of made me laugh and I didn't really take it seriously.Pretty soon I heard so many wonderful things about it and I decided what the heck.I put it in to watch it and pretty soon my eyes were glued to the television screen.I thought all the actors and actresses gave powerful performances and the story line was very intriguing.This was a very good movie and Halle Berry took on a character I had never seen her play before which blew my mind.I would say this movie was flawless in it's acting and performance skills,because there was nothing at all that was messed up about it,but I gave it a 7,because it just didn't really excite me.I mean it was actually kind of a boring movie to watch,but it is still a great movie and I say if you haven't seen it ,you're missing out on something special.
A good little drama
posted on 07 Apr 2009Halle Berry plays a woman who's husband, Brian, is killed when he tries to help a woman being beaten by her husband. Devastated and not sure where to turn she turns to husband's long time friend Jerry. Jerry is an addict that everyone has abandoned except Brian. Jerry ends up moving in and helping the family deal with the loss as well as finding the strength to continue on the road to recovery.This is a really good little drama. Clearly Halle Berry has learned from past mistakes and has actually made a movie and given a performance that makes one not want to take her Oscar back. This is not a neat and clean story. things happen life happens. There is no pat endings, though there is hope and change. To be certain there are a few too many cutesy moments (the crying at the commercial and the meat is murder bit are a bit too precious for words.) but mostly this is a nice little examination of the aftermath of a death. As they say in the film, accept the good and as Brian had said after a fire destroys the garage, its not the things we lost, its the fact that we are still together.
Joey goes to the movies; THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE
posted on 02 Mar 2009"Things We Lost in the Fire", Paramount Pictures' latest release, is a
surprisingly deep and engrossing drama about human emotion and how the
loss of life can impact and drastically change our daily lives.
The film revolves around a happily-married couple, Audrey and Steven
Bourke (Berry and Duchovny), raising two children in northwestern
suburbia. Their lives take a tragic turn for the worst after Steven is
killed while defending a stranger from attack on the streets.
Audrey immediately finds that her life has turned completely
upside-down, with her mental stability and sanity slipping by the day.
Audrey invites Steven's best friend, a heroin addict named Jerry
Sunborne (Del Toro), to live with her in a spare room that was cleared
just before Steven died. She feels a certain attachment to Jerry that
draws her to him, retaining a piece of her lost husband's life within
Jerry that she can physically surround herself with in Steven's
absence.
Without giving away too much of what happens, I can say that the film
further focuses on Audrey and Jerry, how they connect and ultimately
how they learn to survive in the absence of a common entity that was so
important to both of them, growing, changing and learning to live based
on their experiences with each other.
"Things We Lost in the Fire" is a rare film in the fact that it was
released by a mainstream studio but has the feeling of a great
Independent ("Indie") drama. Director Susanne Bier's past experience
includes numerous Indie dramas in her homeland of Denmark, where her
unique filming style and attention to detail within film has garnered
her much critical praise.
Bier incorporates her skillful film making techniques and motifs in
this film, where she focuses the camera on a close-up of the actors'
eyes to convey a certain emotion or feeling, stressing that beauty can
be found in areas not common to what most people think.
Although technically a beautiful and extremely well-made film, Bier's
freshman foray into American film making slightly stumbles. "Things We
Lost in the Fire" is at times a prolonged melodrama, where Oscar-bait
scenes for Berry are obviously thrown into the mix, showing her
sprawled on the floor moaning and weeping for almost three minutes at
times. While scenes like this certainly get film's emotional message
across, they also interrupt the flow of the film, turning a touching
character study into a somewhat uneven melodrama.
But, the notes that this film hit right far outshine the discordant
ones. Berry and Del Toro both provide Oscar-worthy performances, and
the film's emotional impact and deep, engrossing storyline help to
elevate it above its trashy mainstream brethren.
November is generally the month which is designated as the start to
"Oscar Season" by many of the industry experts, where most
high-profile, sure-to-be-nominated films are released in hopes of
winning a coveted Oscar statue early next year. "Things We Lost in the
Fire" is the perfect film to lead us into Oscar season. Taut
performances, expert direction, and beautiful cinematography tie
together to make this film one of my early picks for Best Picture of
2007.
do you hear that expression being kissed by god?
posted on 31 Aug 2009finally after what seems like eons ago, Berry gives a great performance alongside Del Toro in this very disturbing, but at the same time comforting movie.Del Toro acts Berry off the screen in what has to be one of his best performances to date, and the narration runs smoothly, even though we are treated to flashbacks almost every ten minutes.Duchovny puts in a career best performance as the deceased and dealing with the fact that his death was sudden and his best friend is a heroin addict, adds to Berrys brave performance.unfairly treated by critics, this film raises a lot of important issues, and although not all of them are answered, this is a very good, if sometimes very hard to watch movie.