Halle Berry burns at the box office

02-02-2008 08:15

Buried deep within the embers of grief, a spark of friendship ignites in relationship drama 'Things We Lost in the Fire'. However, while this thoughtful, emotional film delivers some strong performances and appealing cinematography, don't expect a blaze of drama and excitement.Halle Berry and Benicio Del Toro play two very different people thrown together in the wake of disaster.Audrey (Berry) is grieving for her husband who has been killed in a sudden tragedy and feeling utterly lost turns to drug addict Jerry (Del Toro), a childhood friend of her husband's, in a desperate search for help. The relationship between this odd pairing is interesting. Audrey is drawn to Jerry as the only person who knew her husband Brian (David Duchovny) as well as, or perhaps better than, she did, but is furious that he has survived his heroin addiction while her husband is dead through no fault of his own.Brian's death is a catalyst for both of them. Jerry is moved to get clean and sort his life out, while Audrey feels her whole life has lost all meaning.Though it is she who invites Jerry to become her lodger in a bid to help him out, their roles are reversed and he ends up supporting Audrey through her loss and becoming a father figure to her two young children.Berry said: "I think the beauty of this character is that she didn't understand addiction. And that's why she never understood why her husband was so invested in this loser of a man who used to be this great lawyer who squandered his life away.