Bier's skill in rising above melodramatic convention appears to have abandoned her on the trip to America.
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10/18/07
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Things We Lost in the Fire (2007)
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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:Oct 19, 2007 Wide
Box Office: $3,241,832
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
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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
Top CriticBrave 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
Top CriticEvolves 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
Top Critic[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
Top CriticHighlighted 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
Top CriticLatest News for Things We Lost in the Fire
March 03, 2008:
RT on DVD: Into the Wild, Things We Lost In The Fire, My Kid Could Paint That Arrive
Into the Wild, Sean Penn's lyrical adventure about a young idealist on a cross-country trek, leads new releases this week. More...
January 18, 2008:
Down but Not Out, HD DVD Soldiers On
The clock hasn't stopped ticking on the format, but HD DVD consumers can look forward to seeing new films on store shelves -- for at least the next few months, anyway. More...
December 10, 2007:
Best Unproduced Scripts in Hollywood Unveiled
It's a young tradition, but Hollywood's Black List -- the year-end list of production executives' favorite scripts in development -- has already become an eagerly awaited... More...
October 28, 2007:
51st London Film Festival - RT's Highlights
It's that time of year when the film world's biggest and brightest descend on London and show some Oscar hopefuls nice and early. RT has been spending time eyeing up the films... More...
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