Typically, there are only about six different types of movies put out by Hollywood year after year: action, horror, love, comedy, science fiction, drama. This is all that Hollywood knows, and so perhaps it takes a Danish director like Susanne Bier(making her American debut with this picture) to deliver something which doesn't really fit into any of the above categories, while simultaneously playing to the strengths of several of them.

     Things We Lost centers on the grieving of Audrey Burke(Halle Berry, finally getting back in form), a recent widow whose husband Brian(David Duchovny) died while trying to save a woman on the street whom he didn't know from her abusive husband. I honestly had no idea Duchovny was even in the film until his appearance, as no ads have yet run which feature him. Perhaps because his last few movies have received the kiss of death at the box office, Dreamworks Pictures chose to excise him from all trailers, fearful that the audience might stay away. It's the same logic exercised by Paramount years ago by removing David Caruso's face from all posters for their inevit-able flop Jade. Whatever the reason, Duchovny gives a humble and inspired performance during his scenes, which are told in intermittent flashback.

     Just hours before the funeral is to commence, Audrey asks her brother Neal(Omar Benson Miller) to retrieve Brian's friend Jerry (Benicio Del Toro) from his flophouse in a somewhat seedier portion of Seattle, where the story is set. Jerry is a former lawyer and recov-ering heroin addict who has relapsed more than a few times. He and Brian grew up together and in all those years, Brian was the only person who never gave up hope that his friend would make it back to the real world one day. They remained best friends in spite of Audrey's protests, and so she owes it to her husband's memory to invite his currently straight friend to the funeral. It is here that Jerry finally makes the acquaintance of the couple's children, six year-old Dory(Micah Berry) and his ten year-old sister Harper(Alexis Llewellyn).

     A quick word about the children: Micah Berry makes his acting debut in this film, and does a decent job. Young Alexis however, is nearly as skilled and believable at her craft as Dakota Fanning was at this age. She's a scene stealer, and hopefully great things will be in store for her.

     A short while after the funeral, Audrey presents an offer to let Jerry stay in a spare room in the house. No real reason is given, yet both screenwriter Allan Loeb(New Amsterdam) and Bier trust the audience to understand that Audrey feels some guilt over her feelings of jealousy toward Jerry and Brian's relationship, and perhaps some responsibility for his well-being now that Brian is gone. It's a rare thing when either writer or director trust in the inherent intelligence of their audience, let alone both going with that instinct. It's a pleasure to be allowed to figure some things out.

     There are some moments when Things We Lost veers off into either odd directions--such as Audrey's request for Jerry to cuddle with her in bed one night(both remain clothed) in a specific manner that Brian used to, so that she can finally get some sleep--or some-what predictable directions, like the possibility that Jerry and Audrey might actually fall for each other. I won't reveal what happens, except to say that just as in real life when the object of our desire doesn't manifest itself as we wish, something else comes along which may be what is needed, but which we just can't see.

     That is the true power of Things We Lost In The Fire; that all the people, the character interactions, the situations they find themselves in, are real. We may not agree with all that happens--especially when Audrey says something particularly cruel to Jerry early on after he moves in, and later on when she kicks him out of the house, seeming-ly on a whim. But the problem is that she is grieving...and anyone who has lost someone close will understand that human beings do irrational things when overcome with grief. Things they will most certainly regret later, as Audrey does. There even comes a point where Audrey all but begs Jerry to score some heroin for her, just so she can escape the reality and pain of the world she now finds herself in. It's a scary moment, because we are uncertain whether Jerry...a man whose strength fluctuates daily, due to his own addiction...will accede to her wishes. But it is real, nonetheless.

     There is another quiet, nearly subconscious theme which runs within Things We Lost, and that is the ease with which the races get along. Hollywood has always been a liberal town, more or less, and it is a refreshing and pleasant trend in more recent movies--from The Brave One to Rendition to We Own The Night and now this film--that the bi-raciality of more couples and friends in general are being represented. Jerry is Hispanic, yet is best friends with Brian who is white and married to a Black woman. All the in-laws get along. Beyond this obvious point, the subtler clue is that we are all human, and the surface of who we are is only that: a surface.

     Later on into the story, the center shifts to Jerry's problems with his recovery. In spite of Brian's other pal Howard(John Carroll Lynch) offering Jerry steady work and the attraction a fellow recovering junkie(Alison Lohman) feels toward him, Jerry's balance on the fence is precarious. To paraphrase that famous proverb once coined by Hillary Clinton, it takes a village to keep Jerry clean, and at one point everyone--Howard, Neal, Audrey and even her kids--do their best to give of themselves and pitch in. It sounds like a happy-sappy episode of The Brady Bunch, but it's not by any stretch. The genuine love and concern the kids show toward Jerry will bring tears to your eyes.

     If indeed there were only that much love in the world, humanity's problems could be solved almost overnight.

     Things We Lost isn't perfect by any means. The score by Johan Soderqvist is repetitive and begins to grate after a while. Ever since Lennie Niehaus' score for Clint Eastwood's masterpiece Unforgiven, various composers have attempted to remix one particular theme for their films in order to provide a type of musical thru-line for the story. None have succeeded, because they didn't understand that Niehaus(with assistance from Eastwood) constantly built upon the theme as the movie went along, adding subtle layers. Also in Things We Lost, there are a few too many closeups of the actors' eyeballs, as if we are to discern exactly what they are thinking and feeling at key moments. This just might be a Danish storytelling quirk, so I won't take away too many cool points for it.