Review: Things We Lost in the Fire

David Duchovny, an affluent family man, devoted to his wife Halle Berry and their kids, is killed whilst attempting to be a Good Samaritan to a woman being beaten. Berry is paralysed by grief, unable to move on. Hell, she even almost forgets to invite Duchovny’s life-long best friend Benicio Del Toro to the funeral. There’s a story there. You see, Del Toro is a former lawyer and current heroin addict, though he tries to clean himself up for the funeral. Berry has always been jealous and frustrated at Duchovny’s devotion to this seemingly selfish, self-destructive man (she basically thinks he’s a leech). But knowing that her husband would want it, Berry later seeks out Del Toro in his current squalor and asks him to move into the family’s garage (The title refers to a fire in the garage. Berry asks Del Toro if he can help fix it up and move in). It’s what her husband would’ve wanted her to do, and well, she needs company too, and this troubled man is one of the few links to her husband that she still has (even though she’s never previously taken any time to get to know the guy, choosing to cling to her pre-conceived impressions). It’s not an easy relationship, Berry seems to want Del Toro to act as a surrogate for Duchovny one minute (in an awkward scene), and the next she yells at him for stealing an important moment with her kids that should’ve been Duchovny’s. Del Toro, meanwhile, starts going to AA and meets a fellow addict, Alison Lohman, who tries to keep him on the straight and narrow. John Carroll Lynch turns up as an easy-going neighbour who takes a non-judgemental attitude towards Del Toro and even offers him a stable job.

 

Strong, well-acted 2007 Susanne Bier (a Danish filmmaker with a Dogme background, making her first foray into more conventional, Hollywood filmmaking) drama nearly has a few icky moments in the development of the relationship between Berry and Del Toro (Berry’s feelings towards him are very complex and constantly changing), but thankfully never really goes there (nor does it go the easy route between Del Toro and Lohman, either). Del Toro is especially excellent, but most importantly, he’s believable and not watered-down. This guy means well, and is a lot more likeable than he could’ve in another actor’s hands, but he’s not a trustworthy guy at this point in his life. There’s also some light relief (welcome, in an otherwise emotionally heavy film) from John Carroll Lynch. As for Berry, well she actually turns in a performance for a change, doing some real acting, and I liked her (though her character isn’t always easy to read) and the film itself, a lot better than the overrated “Monster’s Ball”. Hell, even Alison Lohman manages to not suck for once, though she still looks like Jessica Lange with stunted growth (Seriously, look at her and tell me she doesn’t look like a 12 year-old version of Jessica Lange!).

 

A lot better, more straightforward, and less gimmicky than Del Toro’s other drug film “21 Grams”, though there is some structural confusion early on. Screenplay by Allan Loeb (his first, he’d sadly go on to write some pretty average-to-poor comedies after this like “Just Go With It”), this isn’t as saccharine as it could’ve been, even though Duchovny’s character is a Good Samaritan. I mean, guys like him do exist, that’s why we have the term Good Samaritan, surely! It’s an interesting film not only about healing and redemption, but also it’s about genuinely good people who have had some very bad things crop up in their life (or in Del Toro’s case, chosen a bad path that it is tough for him to get out of, once hooked), people we come to want the very best for in life. I wanted to strangle Berry’s kids, though. Sorry, but they were incredibly cloying ‘movie kids’. Yuck.

 

Rating: B-