Review of Things We Lost in the Fire (2007) by Dawdlingpoet — 28 Nov 2021

I found this to be a real slow burner of a film, one which started off leaving me none the wiser, as the tragedy its about isn't depicted in the first half hour or so, so as a viewer your left rather in the dark about why the wife is so upset and whats going on. It has quite a depressing, sinister feel to it in terms of the use of rather ghostly music often present in scenes - mostly acoustic guitar chords being strummed almost frustratingly slowly. I have to say, I did feel like the music was over-emphasised and this put me off this particular film. Right the way through, it seems to desperately sort of promote itself as a hard hitting, emotional film, which (don't get me wrong) it is but it definitely lacked substance overall.

Given the storyline, I certainly did feel sorry for the wife, Audrey and I could understand her distress and only imagine how distraught she was at certain times but its almost as if this film was trying too hard to hit all the sort of 'emotional bases'. There are so many cruel twists and details present, some would be hard not to guess in advance and others more out of the blue - this I felt made me question how realistic the story was really. I suppose its the level of trust that Audrey had and also her relationship with her children, that I felt a bit doubtful of somehow, although of course I can't personally claim to have been in her characters position.

I noticed that the film features some rather shaky, or jerky, camerawork at different times, which is another downside to this film, if you have a strong tendency to motion sickness then you won't much care for this aspect no doubt. There are some quite poignant camera angles and scenes present - I feel this is quite a touching film, although as I say it almost tries too hard and packs too much in, in the hour and fifty running time, for it to somehow feel truly realistic.

I suppose this film is potentially quite good for talking about the struggles of drug addiction and showing what an impact it can have on younger people (ie. Audreys kids). Perhaps this film could help start/spark a discussion on drug taking.

I found the ending to be quite touching, although rather bittersweet as well, as while it did (I suppose) tell an important moral message and sort of say what needed to be said, it also left me wondering what the future held for Audrey and her children - something which isn't revealed.

Overall, no, I don't think I would recommend this film as it felt a bit too 'forced' and I did question the likelihood of how the story played out. I felt this film lacked an amount of credibility somehow but to be fair, this is more down to the script than the cast and it does certainly have its moments - its poignant and fairly moving in parts, yet there's something lacking overall that puts me off recommending it, plus the over-use of the musical score and some jerky camerawork also put me off.