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Things We Lost In The Fire
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - America - Paramount Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: James Teitelbaum & Noor Razzak (7th April 2009). |
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The Film
 David Duchovny is dead. This is a problem. It is a problem because as Brian in the film "Things We Lost in the Fire", he had a hot wife named Audrey (Halle Berry), two precocious kids with big mops of hair, a fancy house in Washington state, and a junkie best friend named Jerry (Benicio del Toro). Brian was a kind-hearted guy - especially for a powerful real estate broker - and his kindness was his undoing. While buying his kids some ice cream he came across a domestic dispute and ended up getting shot. With some reluctance, Jerry is summoned to the funeral. Although he always treated Jerry with respect and compassion, Brian's wife and friends questioned the relationship. For someone like Brian, hanging out with a junkie - lifelong pal or not - was just not the thing to be doing. But Brian and Jerry had been pals since childhood, and Brian was the only person in the world who never gave up on Jerry. After Brian's death, Audrey needs a project. She tries fixing up the house, but decides that fixing up Jerry would be a better idea. Audrey is pretty fried emotionally, Jerry is pretty fried physically, and over the course of a few weeks, they give each other the support that they both need. Turns out that Jerry the junkie is better equipped to deal with things than Audrey is. He overcomes his addiction, cleans himself up, becomes a father figure to the kids, and does his noble best to resist poking Audrey (if out of respect to Brian). Audrey, on the other hand, is angry, exhausted, resentful of Jerry's bonding with her kids, and she basically becomes rather difficult to be around. Helping Jerry through a relapse is just what she needs to turn herself around and make her human again. With the aid of a cute and perky fellow junkie who has the hots for Jerry (a believably rough looking Alison Lohman), everyone (except Brian) lives happily ever after. "Things We Lost in the Fire" is Benicio's movie all the way. He has taken everything he learned playing other junkies in films like Terry Gilliam's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" (1998), added a decade of further acting experience to that, and turned in a layered and believable performance. Berry is adequate, Duchovny is reliable but his role is small, and the kids are predictably too cute for our own good (although one of them has a highly coveted vintage 1977 Star Wars lunch box that inspires a bit of dialogue that would make Kevin Smith jealous). Overall, the film juxtaposes parallel recoveries - from addiction and from grief - rather nicely, but it also teeters between cloying mawkishness and effective drama. Mostly due to Benicio, the picture ultimately comes out on the effective drama side of that fence, but only just.
Video
Presented in the film's original theatrical ratio of 2.35:1 in high-definition 1080p 24/fps. This transfer is identical to the film's previous HD DVD release and has been mastered in AVC MPEG-4 compression. This image is crisp and sharp, displaying a decent amount of detail especially in the film's close shots. The image is clean and free from dirt, specks and other flaws. There's no compression related issues that I can spot. The film's color palette is rather dull, but the muted look is represented accurately here. The almost desaturated look comes across with deep blacks and consistent shadow detail. For a small production (budget-wise) the film looks good and this HD image holds up to scrutiny.
Audio
Three audio tracks are featured on this disc, an English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 surround track mixed at 48kHz/16-bit as well as a French Dolby Digital 5.1 and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 surround tracks. For the purposes of his review I chose to view the film with its TrueHD audio, an improvement over the previously released HD DVD's Dolby Digital Plus sound track. The film does not require an aggressive audio mix, in fact it's largely dialogue with a subtle and ambient based foundation. The track feels like it's front heavy for the duration, there are some music cue and ambient sounds that utilize the surround channels but nothing major. Immersiveness is partly achieve in this average audio mix that just does the minimum. Optional subtitles are included in English, English for the hearing impaired, French, Portuguese and Spanish.
Extras
Paramount has released this film with a featurette, a collection of deleted scenes, the original theatrical trailer. Below is a closer look at these supplements. "A Discussion About Things We Lost in the Fire" is a featurette running for 20 minutes 22 seconds and is your basic production EPK, consisting on interviews with the cast and production team, all intercut with scenes from the picture. 7 deleted Scenes include: - "Neal Does 'Mumsie' for Dory" runs for 1 minute 5 seconds; Uncle Neal does a funny impression. - "Dwayne OD'd" runs for 1 minute 49 seconds; While at work, Jerry gets the news that his friend is dead. - "Howard Tests Jerry" runs for 33 seconds; While jogging, Jerry is able to prove that he is learning. - "Jerry Makes Breakfast" runs for 55 seconds; Jerry and the two little girls eat breakfast. - "It All Comes Down To the Finish" runs for 2 minutes 23 seconds; Audrey and Jerry talk in her woodworking shop. - "Family Breakfast" runs for 1 minute 3 seconds; The little girls bicker as the adults look on. - "Audrey Gives Jerry the Cupboard" runs for 1 minute 32 seconds; Her furniture is done, she gifts it to him. The film's original theatrical trailer is also included on this disc and runs for 2 minutes 24 seconds.
Overall
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