Things We Lost in the Fire.

"Things We Lost in the Fire is rough going at times, and not just because of its downbeat subject matter, its examination of catastrophic loss and the different ways people attempt to deal with it," writes Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times. "But though it is erratic and can come off as manufactured, this film has the gift of gathering strength as it goes on. Potent when it needs to be, it harnesses the talents of stars Halle Berry and Benicio Del Toro in ways that ultimately make us sit up and take notice."

"[W]here Monster's Ball went for pummeling working-class intensity, Fire opts for a more upscale form of griefsploitation," writes Nathan Rabin at the AV Club. "Here, Berry is gorgeous 'n' grieving instead of ragged and raw, but the Oscar-baiting emotions remain the same.... Well-acted yet strangely inert, Fire explores the messy human emotions of grief, but it'd be a lot more resonant if the guy everyone's mourning weren't so fatally perfect, so unforgivably superhuman."

Updated through 10/25.

Susanne Bier "knows the difference between drama and melodrama," writes Walter Addiego in the San Francisco Chronicle. "The director, whose After the Wedding won an Oscar nomination this year, has a penchant for emotionally rich stories often set in a family context (as in her powerful 2004 drama Brothers) and is adept at creating a sense of intimacy with her lead characters."

"Where the film's ambitions crumble is in its avowed refusal to make its audience too uncomfortable," writes Alonso Duralde at MSNBC. "Problems get resolved quickly, comic relief is injected, strangers express kindness - there's always something going on to relieve any tension that might build up, and it feels like a cheat."

For Richard Schickel, writing in Time, it's "Del Toro who drives us out of sympathy with this picture. The director, Susanne Bier... either can't or won't control him, and he is a shameless performer - constantly suing us for sympathy, by tricks that are either too cute or too crude.... He makes us tired. And he makes the movie unforgivably tiresome."

At the Reeler, ST VanAirsdale has notes on Berry's comments at a recent preview in New York.

Updates, 10/21: "No doubt there is an audience that will enjoy Things We Lost in the Fire for an easy cry, but the dry-eyed know that Bier can do better," writes Robert Keser at Slant.

James Rocchi talks with Bier at Cinematical. So does Peter Sobczynski, at Hollywood Bitchslap.

Gina Piccolo profiles Berry for the LAT.

Update, 10/25: "Bier goes after the grace of the supernatural climax in The Best of Youth where beneficence reaches in from beyond the grave, but it feels contrived here," writes Armond White in the New York Press.

Posted by dwhudson at October 19, 2007 2:23 PM