THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE
In The Pacific Northwest, Burning Embers Of Loss, Pain, Resentment And Addiction
PopcornReel.com Movie Review: "Things We Lost In The Fire"
By Omar P.L. Moore/October 20, 2007
Tough Times Don't Last, Tough People Do: Oscar winners Benicio Del Toro,
electric as Jerry, and Halle Berry as Audrey, in Susanne Bier's "Things We Lost
In The Fire", which opened yesterday across North America. (Photos: Doane
Gregory/Dreamworks-Paramount Pictures)
Danish director Susanne Bier makes her English-language film
debut, directing "Things We Lost In The Fire", an intense emotional drama about
loss, redemption, healing and resentment. The film opened across North
America yesterday. Oscar winner Halle Berry gives a delicately nuanced
turn as Audrey, who has just lost her husband Brian (David Duchovny) as he was
doing a Good Samaritan turn during a night in the Seattle area. Ms. Bier
uses her story-telling and visual skills so perceptively here and editing in any
film she directs is always strong, and here a lot is revealed about the
relationship between Audrey and Brian, as well as the relationship between Brian
and Jerry (Oscar winner Benicio Del Toro), childhood friends. The film
excels when myriad tensions between Audrey, a mother of two, and Jerry, a heroin
addict lawyer who can't see past his own demons without an injection of the
addiction, are under the same roof, at Audrey's invitation, following tragedy.
"Things We Lost In The Fire" is written by Allan Loeb, whose screenplay is a
richly-detailed rendering of a middle-class American family, and embedded with
pathos and emotion. The script is layered and possesses a scope and depth
of dialogue that makes you feel very familiar with the characters -- as if
you've known them for a long time. When a screenplay is able to do this --
to make an audience feel familiar and warm to its players -- all the actors of
the film's screenplay have to do is do the rest, and here the actors excel more
than comfortably.
One of the noteworthy things about Ms. Bier's film is that it doesn't call
attention to the racial dynamics or use cliches about race to define the family
of Audrey and Brian. This may be due to the director's sensibilities as a
European filmmaker, or her need to tell a story that is tightly executed, or
both. There are few shots for example, of Audrey and Brian with their kids
in the open air of the Pacific Northwest -- they are confined, and by design --
not necessarily by the larger white or black society who might frown upon their
interracial union -- but by the confines of the director's boundaries, framed by
intimacy, intellect and irritation within Audrey. It feels as if the whole
film is being lived and breathed through Audrey's eyes and her visions are
claustrophobic. One of the director's trademarks is her ability to
visualize emotion and sustain it through tight close-ups of a portion of the
face -- an eyeball, the curve of the lips, or a portion of a smile -- and it is
almost sensual to witness such quiet and powerful moments. We feel what we
see in the flicker of a character's eyelid. Ms. Bier's characters provide
emotional subtitles in these moments, without the words, as we know what they
may be feeling even if they don't telegraph it verbally.
David Duchovny as Brian, in Susanne Bier's "Things We Lost In The Fire".
As the relationship between Audrey and Jerry vacillates, the
editing by Pernille Bech Christensen and Bruce Cannon becomes more urgent, and
the acting sharper. A Narcotics Anonymous meeting member, Jerry is
accosted by a fellow recovering addict in Kelly, played by Alison Lohman, who is
quietly affective even though her character needn't have been part of the story.
There's a scene at the dinner table involving her character in the film's second
half, and it is a tad contrived. Thankfully the scene doesn't come close
to spoiling the film, which has an excellent, Oscar worthy performance from Del
Toro as Jerry, as well as scintillating acting from Alexis Llewellyn (as
ten-year-old Harper) and Micah Berry (as six-year-old Dory), the children of Ms.
Berry's and Ms. Duchovny's characters. There's also nice supporting work
from John Carroll Lynch (creepier than nails on a blackboard in "Zodiac") as
Howard, a neighbor and close friend of Brian who is enduring his own
difficulties. Howard is a character who has lots of banter with Jerry and
their scenes are amusing, serving as a appreciated diversion from the heavier
sequences in the film, especially those involving Mr. Del Toro's character.
Ms. Berry is back to the kind of terrain she attacked so well in her
Oscar-winning turn in "Monster's Ball", but her acting here is more challenging,
because she isn't necessarily sympathetic in some respects -- a somewhat selfish
widow -- who could as well be closing the door on her departed husband as much
as she does on the important people that enter his life. If anything,
Berry gives Audrey a strength and righteousness that makes her character
fiercely protective not only of herself and her kids, but of the late Brian as
well. She masks her grief, even if we feel it pulsing through her veins.
Mr. Duchovny's Brian has an ever-so-slight edge to him, but he is charismatic
enough to be credible as a man who is married to Ms. Berry onscreen. Many
of the scenes in the film are in flashback mode, which add a touch of sadness
and weight to the narrative. Ms. Bier is one of the best directors around,
and she is better at emotional texture and intelligent characters than most any
helmer in the business.
"Things We Lost In The Fire" is engaging and absorbing and is produced by Sam
Mendes (Oscar-winning director of "American Beauty" and "The Road To Perdition")
and Sam Mercer, and it is a winning debut in the English language for Ms. Bier,
who also directed "After The Wedding", an Oscar-nominated film, which was
released earlier this year across much of the U.S.
"Things We Lost In The Fire" is rated R by the Motion Picture
Association of America for drug content and language. The film's duration
is one hour and 59 minutes. Susanne Bier's film also features Omar Benson
Miller as Neal, Audrey's brother, and Paula Newsome (who was terrific in "Reign
Over Me" earlier this year) as Diane.
Copyright The Popcorn Reel. PopcornReel.com. 2007.
All Rights Reserved.