A recent widow invites her husband's troubled best friend to live with her and her two children. As he gradually turns his life around, he helps the family cope and confront their loss.
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vertex reviewed Things We Lost in the Fire (2007)
Accept the good
Things We Lost in the Fire tells a story about a grieving widow (Halle Berry) and the best friend (Benicio Del Toro) of her departed husband (David Duchovny). The movie starts of at the funeral and the tragedy is slowly described with flashbacks.
It seems that the choice of actors has been made with a profound thought. Halle Berry does a solid performance portraying the grieving widow. Her role reminds me of her Oscar worthy performance in Monster's Ball where she also portrayed a grieving widow. Del Toro is also on top of his game portraying a recovering addict. Think about it. Who could possibly do a better job portraying a recovering drug addict than Benicio Del Toro.
The movie describes a lot of feelings. There is the widow, her kids and the drug addict and it’s very interesting to see how they cope with the tragedy and how their lives are connected. The movie succeeds in slowly growing the feelings that it passes to the viewer. The movie utilizes calm music and extreme close up angles to build up the mood very effectively. The movie succeeds in many things but I would’ve still liked to see it going forward a little faster and going just a little deeper with the story to make it even more satisfactory package. All in all Things We Lost in the Fire is a good movie with a solid cast and if you enjoy emotional dramas I think you’ll like it.
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