Halle Berry stars as Audrey
–
a grieving widow having difficulties moving on with her life after her
husband,
Steven (David Duchovny), is suddenly killed (I won’t tell you
how, since that
is one of the movie’s most interesting twists).
As she starts the painful process of notifying
friends and family, she
reaches out to Steven’s life long friend, Jerry (Benicio Del
Toro). Steven was
the one person trying to help Jerry
get through his drug addiction, so Audrey asks him to move into their
empty
garage apartment.
Will these two be able to
help each other mourn the loss of someone so special in their lives? Can they help each other
overcome the massive
challenges in front of them?
Things
We Lost In The Fire is a polarizing movie
splitting audiences into two camps.
You either hate the lack of a defined plot,
or revel in the chance to see two of the best actors in the business
fight
through the myriad of emotions their characters must confront. I enjoyed it.
Writer Allan Loeb and
director Susanne Bier create an environment and situations to allow us
to watch
these characters struggle with the grieving process, emptiness and
rebirth. They even
make the movie a bit funnier than
you might think, so don’t feel you have to hunker down for a
morose two hours.
Along the way, you get to
see one of my favorite actors in all of his glory.
Del Toro is so natural and captivating you
will be amazed at his approach to giving some soul to a troubled
character many
people would write off as a lost cause.
He’s never over the top or asking for a
pity party. I hope
the movie does well at the box office
because he puts in an Oscar-worthy performance that will be forgotten
if Hollywood
dismisses the
movie as a financial failure.
Sadly, Berry gets the
overwrought stuff, and her
performance comes off as a bit forced.
She excels when interacting with Duchovny, but Bier
and Loeb ask for the
wrong reactions to show us the pain inside Audrey.
It doesn’t ruin the movie, but it puts her
in
the unfortunate position of not coming off as well as Del Toro.
Things
We Lost In The Fire
has a chance to be lost in the shuffle of so many serious movies
opening this
week, but don’t let it get lost from your sight if you like
good acting.
3 Waffles
(Out of 4)
Things
We Lost In The Fire is
rated R for drug content and language.
Copyright
2007 - WaffleMovies.com
