Is it all right with you if I say I haven't made up my mind about this movie? It is simultaneously a film that explores grief, addiction, recovery, and redemption. It also seems to have a singular purpose: to make you sad.

Things We Lost in the Fire has "feel bad" written all over it. It is almost impossible to escape. For most of its nearly two-hour runtime, I felt trapped within the free-flowing bad karma that was just pouring off the screen. Now, while it was successful at that, I am not sure it was "good." It certainly featured some good performances, but they came with a heavy price: self-important filmmaking. This was the impression I got — intended or not — and it weighed heavily on the rest of the experience.

Things We Lost in the Fire opens during a funeral. There are many people walking around the home, but there is one figure who appears to be out of place. That person is Jerry (Benicio Del Toro). He is disheveled and keeps primarily to himself. He has a desire to be there, but feels cut off from the rest of the mourners - in particular, Audrey Burke (Halle Berry), the grieving widow whose home we are in.

Through flashbacks we learn that Audrey's husband, Steven (David Duchovny), died in a freak act of violence. We also learn that Steven's childhood best friend, Jerry, is a heroin addict who lives in a seedy part of town. Steven would visit his friend on his birthday each year, much to the chagrin of his wife, who feared for his safety and never took a liking to Jerry's "situation."

Following the funeral, Audrey is having trouble dealing with the loss of her husband. Not hard to believe - losing the love of your life has to be an absolutely horrible experience to live through, much less get past. Seemingly as a way of trying to deal, she surprises herself by inviting Jerry to move into the room next to the garage. I am guessing that she is seeking to supplant Steven's Good Samaritan nature regarding his long time friend.

Jerry moves in and works on getting himself clean, with a little help from a friendly neighbor (John Carroll Lynch) and Audrey and Steven's children, Dory and Harper (Micah Berry and Alexis Llewllyn, respectively). The impetus for this latest attempt at cleanliness was the death of Steven, his only friend, the only person to not give up on him.

The film follows Jerry in his attempt to get and stay clean, paralleling Audrey's attempt to come to some sort of grips with the loss of her husband. She uses him as an emotional punching bag, saying it should have been him who died, while he takes as much as he can, focusing on getting clean only to falter when she presses too hard. It is a fact she realizes, and steps up to try and help him clean up again.