Champagne Supernova

‘The Things We Lost In The Fire’ is a powerful and emotional movie that excels in both content and theme. The story makes you understand and feel the pain of its characters, not just see it.  Also, the film never falls on cheap sentimentalism.  It is always very honest

Halle Berry plays Audrey, loving wife of Brian (David Duchovny), whose is gunned down in the street after preventing a man from beating his wife. Jerry (Benico Del Toro) was best friends with Brian since childhood, but Audrey disapproved of their friendship because of Jerry's heroin habit. A cautious relationship is established between Jerry and Audrey when she offers him a place to stay after he tries to kick his habit following Brian's funeral. While Jerry is successful at keeping off the drugs, Audrey finds it difficult to accept the fact that her two children are warming towards him and starts resenting the fact that, despite his degenerate lifestyle, he is still alive, while Brian is dead.

The key aspect in this movie is about the people and their frayed emotions in the wake of personal tragedy. ‘The Things We Lost In The Fire’ focuses largely on the incredible Benicio Del Toro – an inspired choice of casting – whose natural acting skills manage to deflect the attention away to some degree from Halle Berry and David Duchovny.

Del Toro really gets under the skin of his character, which helps the viewer push aside reservations about a character that is a junkie, but with morals and standards whilst in the depths of his addiction. I felt the film avoids the clichés that are too often in this kind of plot and injects a note of uncertainty into what would otherwise be a sort-of happy ending.  By the end of the movie, Jerry comes to realise that he has that 'feeling' he was always looking for with heroin, but that having it isn't necessarily enough – you also, as Brian would say – have to “accept the good” without making further demands in life.  Whether he is strong enough to be able to accept the fact he can overcome his problem is something that plays in our minds well after the movie has finished.

Cheers