Bier's skill in rising above melodramatic convention appears to have abandoned her on the trip to America.
Comment
10/18/07
Things We Lost in the Fire (2007)
64
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:120
Fresh:77
Rotten:43
Average Rating:6.5/10
Consensus: Things We Lost in the Fire is a well-acted, beautifully filmed reflection on love, loss, addiction and recovery from life's obstacles.
Theatrical Release:01-02-2008
Synopsis: Danish director Susanne Bier gained international acclaim when she was nominated for an Oscar for 2006's AFTER THE WEDDING, but before that she had strong ties to the hyper-realistic, documentary... [More]
Starring: Halle Berry, Benicio Del Toro, David Duchovny, Omar Benson Miller
Director: Susanne Bier
Reviews for Things We Lost in the Fire
If the film tends toward didacticism at times, it's a welcome advertisement for compassion.
10/18/07
Just watching Del Toro's eyes provides an emotional fire Allan Loeb's script can't hope to match.
10/18/07
Brave enough to show a cruel and angry side of grief, the film also comes with the first Oscar worthy performance this year, courtesy of Del Toro as a humble, sensitive and self-effacing man struggling to kick his habit.
10/18/07
A deeply emotional film that gives us a deeper respect for those trying to recover from the loss of a loved one or enslavement to an addiction.
10/18/07
A good grief movie is supposed to leave you feeling like crap but, Things We Lost in the Fire ended up making me laugh.
10/18/07
Light on plot, which wouldn't be a problem if the mildly rote characters held more depth than they do.
10/18/07
A rare tragic drama that doesn't let its characters off easy, but doesn't unreasonably punish them either.
10/18/07
Maudlin, mawkish, unintentionally hilarious, and utterly devoid of human emotion. The word I'm searching for, I guess, is "alien."
10/18/07
In Danish director Susanne Bier’s first American effort, the camera lingers so long and lusciously on its lead actress’s perfect little pores that it quickly starts to resemble a Neutrogena commercial.
10/18/07
[Director] Bier is graceful, observant of small details, but her efforts to mine a greater meaning through the camera than Loeb has put on the page is a fruitless endeavor.
10/18/07
Evolves as a story of sadness from the outside looking in, rather than a vivid depiction of hearts finding ways to become unbroken.
10/18/07
Bier is skilled at exploring the inner lives of her characters, but the editing by Pernille Bech Christensen and Bruce Cannon is more precious than revealing.
10/18/07
Is there another face in the movies as endlessly fascinating as Benicio Del Toro's?
10/18/07
Things We Lost in the Fire deals frankly and openly with the wounds -- some obvious, some not so obvious -- that are left by the tragic, untimely loss of a loved one. At times, the film is unsparing.
10/18/07
[Director] Bier's meditation on guilt, redemption, coping and addiction feels so much like old hat that it doesn't carry the weight to which it aspires.
10/18/07
Emotionally fraudulent was the phrase that kept rattling around in my head as I watched the latest chapter in the Interminable American Narrative of Forgiving, Redemption and Understanding.
10/18/07
Consistently well-acted and, for a studio picture, pretty sharp on the subject of addiction and recovery and relapse.
10/18/07
Highlighted by a performance by Benicio Del Toro at his most magnetically bedraggled, this is a welcome rarity: a full-on heartstring yanker that doesn't leave the viewer feeling ill-used afterward.
10/17/07
Bier, in her American debut, mostly keeps things simple and intimate, though, by using hand-held cameras, extreme close-ups and flooding the proceedings with spare, natural light.
10/17/07
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