THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE
US, 2007, 117 minutes, Colour.
Halle Berry, Benicio Del Toro, David Duchovny, Alison Lohman, Omar Benson Miller, John Carroll Lynch, Alexis Llewellyn, Micah Berry.
Directed by Susanne Bier.
There are some films which immediately click and you know you are going to stay with them and enjoy them. There are others which take a long time to get into and you are not sure whether you will become fully involved. I was actually thinking this through during the first half hour or so of Things We Lost in the Fire and deciding that it was not a must-see film but it would be interesting if one happened upon it.
I am not sure at which point my opinion changed but, by the time of the final credits, I had a much greater admiration for the film and what it was communicating.
Though there is a reference to the garage fire of the film’s title early in the film, it is not until towards the end that the meaning is made clear. As might be guessed, the screenplay says that it is only ‘things’ that are lost in fires; we still have people and relationships that keep us going.
The first part of the film moves around quite a bit time-wise. Almost immediately we discover that someone we thought was going to be a central character has died. The explanation of what happened is not given until later in a tragic flashback. What we have is the widow grieving, comforting her two children and dealing with those coming to the funeral. She decides to send her brother to inform and pick up her husband’s best friend, someone she has detested for years. He and her husband grew up together and despite his being a failed lawyer and heroin-addict, her husband never gave up on him. He also becomes a link to her dead husband.
In fact, there are quite a few flashbacks to the happy 11 year marriage, the love between husband and wife and their relationship to their children, much of which is quite moving.
However, the bulk of the film is the tension between the widow and the addict. She invites him into her house to keep the link with her husband. He is marvellous with the children – which she then resents. He goes to Narcotics Anonymous meetings where a recovering young woman befriends him. A neighbour also befriends him and offers him a job. In this kind of film, it seems that the children always resent the new presence or potential parent-replacement – but, not at all, the children here respond well to him. It is their mother who has the problems which have some devastating consequences for him.
The film has been directed by Danish Susanne Bier (who made the fine films, Open Hearts, Brothers and After the Funeral). It is her first English-language film. Trained in the austerity of the Dogme manifesto, she brings a European sensibility to this American story as well as more intimate techniques of hand-held camera, frequent close-ups of eyes, lips, profiles as well as a feminine sensitivity to characters, especially to the wife and daughter.
And the performances are fine. Halle Berry has not had such a good role since she won her Oscar in 2001 for Monster’s Ball. David Duchovny brings great warmth to his scenes as the husband, a good man who loves his family, who is completely generous to his seemingly unredeemable friend and who dies trying to help someone else. John Carroll Lynch brings depth to the neighbour bewildered by the death and harassed by his snobbish wife.
But it is Benicio del Toro as the addict who gives a truly memorable performance, full of nuances which illustrate the weakness and the addiction as well a great deal of innate goodness. His cold turkey scenes are convincing and harrowing.
One of the wise words of advice in the film is the urging of characters to ‘accept the good’. There are other wise themes: that all of us, no matter in what poor light we see ourselves or how low we fall, are lovable; that an untimely death can be the occasion for someone else’s coming to life again; that life is basically about love, second (or more) chances and about hope.
1.The title, the explanation at the end of the film? The comparative importance between people and things? A people film?
2.The Danish director, her Dogme background and style? Transported to the US? The importance of close-ups, of particular aspects of the face? The importance of lighting?
3.The American background, ordinary, the home, hospital, institutions? The musical score?
4.The pace of the film, the gradual involvement of the audience, the gradual build-up of insights, of hope? The theme of accepting the good?
5.The structure of the film: family life, the death, Brian, his background, Audrey and her having to cope, the response of the two children? Her brother supporting her? Sending for Jerry? The flashbacks? Sadness – and the progress to hope?
6.Brian as the focus, a good man, the eleven years of the marriage and relationship, the ease between husband and wife, the ease with the children? The designer, the home, sharing? Love? The friendship with Jerry from childhood, a loyal friend despite Jerry’s drug addiction? Visiting him for his birthday? Helping him, not losing faith in him? A presence in his life?
7.The re-creation of Brian’s death, helping the woman and the attack by the man, his pulling the gun, shooting Brian? The futility of his death?
8.Audrey, in herself, her love for her husband, her grief, her mother helping her, her personal fragility, the funeral, serving others with tea and comforting them, her mother helping? The relations and their coming? Her brother, his friendship with Brian, his support? Sending him for Jerry? Her past resentments towards Jerry, his coming, his presence, talking, her explanation of her dislike of him in the past? Her motivation for bringing him – the question of atonement, his possibility of filling some of Brian’s presence?
9.Jerry’s story, the friendship with Brian at school, studying law, his career, the drugs, the explanation? His describing the feeling of drugs? Going downhill? In the drug apartment, the interiors, Brian visiting him? His later relapse, going into the squalid area of the town with the other addicts?
10.His work in the hospital, Audrey coming to see him, inviting him to move in, the converted garage? His wariness? Adjusting? His strong relationship with the children, their responding to him rather than resenting him, playing with them, the bonds he created? Helping? The girl and her disappearance, Jerry knowing where she was, the information from Brian’s confidences in the past? Audrey watching all this, her beginning to react against Jerry, being upset?
11.Howard, the neighbour, at the funeral, smoking, his critical wife, talking with Jerry, taking him jogging, the past jogging with Brian, Jerry being puffed out? A sincere friend, getting him to go back to study the law, offering him the job? Jerry and his study, passing, the possibilities?
12.Audrey’s outburst, ousting Jerry? His going downhill again, the drugs, Kelly and her visiting the house, talking to Audrey, their going to the squalid area, bringing Jerry back?
13.Jerry, apologising, the kids and their concern? His promising to come back when he was cured?
14.Jerry, the Narcotics Anonymous meetings, talking, the members of the group, the encounter with Kelly, talking with her, her own experience, her optimism? The attraction towards Jerry? Her concern, trying to track him down when he missed the meetings, going to Audrey, their finding him?
15.The visualising of the cold turkey experience – and inviting the audience to share the experience, empathise? The horrors in the cold turkey experience?
16.Howard, his reconciling with his wife, the continued friendship with Jerry?
17.Jerry, going to rehabilitation, his promise to the family? Audrey, coming to terms with the death, to terms with Jerry, with her children, hopes for the future?
