drjgardner This film has wonderful acting from everyone involved, especially the two young kids and Benicio del Toro. The script is excellent, with enough twists and turns to keep you on your feet. The music and photography only add to the merits of this well-crafted film. The only fault I can find in this film is the direction that moves too slowly for my tastes. The director Susanne Bier isn't known for her action films and I enjoyed her pacing in "The Night Manager", but here it is a little too slow.

S7evin Kelevra (Tuktuktuktuk) I Really Wanted to review this movie before but every time i tried i was Speechless my Thoughts were so loud,i couldn't hear my mouth like the song lyric goes....I loved this powerful story,powerful and touching performances by Benicio the King and whole cast from Halle till kids. Halle Berry shows all the drama happening around her Character truly. her face her act is exactly how it supposed to be,her voice her eyes she was Perfect! and So Was Benicio Del Toro! Oh Benicio Were you Addicted before?? i mean truly everyone who has or had any connections with drug addiction will say that Benicio truly acts like he is addicted! i mean in real life! i loved every Scene and Wholeevolution of movie from start till end, how Halle decided to drag Jerry(Benicio Del Toro) to her House was Brilliant(i mean when she found the lost money under the seat in car,when she thought that Jerry stole it). Also the Touching Scenes of Jerry When he is back to the Heroin and when Audrey(Halle Berry) starts rehab of Jerry at home. i Loved the end it isn't Banal at all.I wanted to say more but i cant express myself now really!so it is the best real life touching drama with great story and powerful performances. Applauds!

SnoopyStyle Brian Burke (David Duchovny) is best friend to junkie Jerry Sunborne (Benicio Del Toro). When Brian dies, Jerry tries to help Brian's wife Audrey (Halle Berry) and children. Audrey tries to break Jerry's habit. Alison Lohman plays a recovery friend, and John Carroll Lynch plays a friendly neighbor.Danish director Susanne Bier brings a European sensibility. It's an unsettling series of emotional chaotic melodrama. Benicio Del Toro puts in a heart breaking performance. Halle Berry is playing a confused mess. It can be very slow especially in the first half. It settles down to a sad recovery for everyone.

TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews This is the first Bier film I watch. She's one of our popular directors, and this was her first attempt outside of Denmark. In Hollywood, no less. Maybe that's where it went wrong, and I understand that she has done better before this. I haven't given up on her abilities. Maybe her style of close-ups(including extreme ones on eyeballs), smash-cuts and hand-held camera(I will admit that it puts you right in the situation a lot of the time) works better elsewhere. The script may have been the main problem. It's unoriginal, cliché-ridden, predictable and simply not convincing. None of these people are real. They're one-note and forgettable. The pacing is slow. You can be heavy without being boring. It's also odd how little time it spends on the drugs issue... almost as if it wasn't willing to truly delve into something so uncomfortable. This isn't a complete waste. I liked the beginning. You see the awkward family situation as they try to deal with it. And the way Jerry becomes a surrogate for Brian, the way he uses cigarettes in place of the heroin he was addicted to... that wasn't bad. The non-linear time-line of the first hour is fine. This deals with loss, and it does so nicely enough, if it has little new to offer. Duchovny is his bland self as the angelic husband shot down by a wife-beater(the individual, not the tank top) never-again-to-be-mentioned, leaving his wife Berry(who does well enough, not her best work) and their two kids(who look too similar to one another... then again, they seem like they could be Halle's kids... they're OK actors), and thus Del Toro(who is *magnificent*, he raised my rating of this by one point), Mulder's best friend for years, becomes a bigger part of their lives, to help patch the hole it leaves. This could have been touching. It didn't have to be sappy, borderline emotional porn. When your moral is essentially a bumper sticker... "accept the good"... well, that's a bit of an omen. This has a little humor. There is a moderate amount of strong language and some disturbing content in this. The DVD comes with 9 and a half minutes of deleted scenes(complete but with time-codes), trailers for this and three other movies, and the 20 and a half minute featurette A Conversation About Things We Lost in the Fire, which I will review on its own page here on the site. I recommend this to those who want their heartstrings tugged and have low standards for such. 6/10