Reviewer's grade: A-
Halle Berry, Benicio Del Toro and David Duchovny star in this powerful psychological drama about death, loss and the unexpected ties that make rejuvenation possible. Audrey Burke (Berry) is widowed when her husband Steven (David Duchovny) is murdered while trying to do a good deed. In the aftermath of grief, Audrey is compelled to seek out Steven's childhood friend Jerry Sunborne (Del Toro), a former-lawyer-turned-junkie. Jerry moves in with Audrey and the kids while he tries to get clean, and each begins the business of redefining his or her world.
Slow-paced but well-constructed and compelling, "Things We Lost in the Fire" paints a powerful, realistic portrait of a family's created symmetry torn apart by the arbitrary forces of death, and its efforts to put things back together, whether the means to do so make sense or not. Although emotionally tiring and containing some painfully familiar heroin-withdrawal scenes, it's ultimately well worth the effort. R
"?Mike Robertson
