- A recent widow invites her husband's troubled best friend to live with her and her two children. As he gradually turns his life around, he helps the family cope and confront their loss.
- Grief, recovery, and human contact. Brian is a great guy - a sweet father, a good husband, and a loyal friend to his boyhood pal Jerry who's a junkie. When tragedy strikes, Jerry tries to help Brian's wife and children cope, and Audrey, Brian's widow, tries to help Jerry kick the habit. Loss and addiction are stubborn. The story starts on the day of the funeral, with Brian appearing in flashbacks. A neighbor's divorce, a dinner party that includes a young woman from the Narcotics Anonymous group Jerry attends, and thinking back to a fire in Brian and Audrey's garage give the story texture.—<[email protected]>
- Audrey Burke (Halle Berry) and her warm and loving husband Brian (David Duchovny) have been happily married eleven years; they have a ten-year-old daughter named Harper (Alexis Llewellyn) and a six-year-old son named Dory (Micah Berry). Jerry Sunborne (Benicio Del Toro) is a heroin addict who has been Brian's close childhood friend for many years. Brian would drop in to check on Jerry from time to time and always took care of him. Audrey suspects Jerry of stealing money from Brian and always discourages him from meeting Jerry. Brian always told Audrey that Jerry also looked out for him. Howard Glassman (John Carroll Lynch) lived down the street from Brian and financed some of his deals.
Audrey gets tragic news delivered to her door by the local police: Brian has been killed (he was shot by the man who was beating the woman) in an attempt to defend a woman who was being beaten by her husband. On the day of the funeral Audrey realizes that she has forgotten to inform Jerry of Brian's death. Her brother Neal (Omar Benson Miller) delivers the message to Jerry and takes him to the funeral. Audrey admits that she hated Jerry for many yrs, but says that Brian never gave up on him. After the funeral Audrey gets increasingly frustrated as she misses a man around the house to do the odd jobs and takes her anger out on the kids. One day she finds the money (in between the car seats) that she had accused Jerry of stealing and realizes that she was wrong about him.
Audrey invites Jerry to move into the room adjacent to their garage, which he does. She found Jerry working at a methadone clinic, where he was working as a janitor in exchange for their treatment, which he otherwise could not afford. Howard helps him move in. During his stay at the Burke home Jerry struggles to remain drug-free and also becomes very fond of Harper (Both Harper and Jerry are vegetarians) and Dory. Howard tells Jerry that Brian was a great developer and saved money, so much so, that Audrey does not have to worry about anything. Kelly (Alison Lohman) is a woman in Jerry's recovery group, who has a crush on him. Jerry used to be lawyer, but became an addict. Howard gives him a job.
The relationship between Jerry and Audrey is fragile and complicated. Jerry helps Audrey cope in many ways, including lying with her in bed to help her sleep. Audrey wants Jerry to give her some drugs, but he refuses. But Audrey, upset and confused, takes out her grief at Brian's death on Jerry. She becomes angry when Jerry helps Dory overcome his fear of submerging his head in the pool; something Brian had tried to do for a few years.
Eventually, Audrey demands that Jerry leave the house after he questions Audrey on her reaction to Harper playing hooky from school. Audrey finds that Harper had been missing school for 2 days. She panics and goes to the school, while Jerry finds her at a local movie theatre. Turns out the local theatre would play a black and white movie every day for a specific week every yr. Brian used to take Harper to the same. Jerry knew this and Audrey didn't, and hence she was angry. This causes Jerry to relapse with heroin. Audrey and Neal rescue and rehabilitate Jerry, and he agrees to admit himself to a specialized clinic. When Jerry misses his sessions at the recovery group, Kelly calls and it is picked up by Audrey, who invites her home for dinner. Kelly shares a meal with the family. Audrey tells the story of how their garage caught fire and they lost so many things in it. But Brian was not worried, as he said that those were just things, and that they still had each other. At first Harper, who has come to love Jerry as much she did her father, is angry that he is leaving. But after he leaves her a heartfelt note she accepts that he is going.
Jerry is still struggling with his addiction but seems to be well on his way to recovery. He leaves red flowers on Audrey's doorstep with a note that reads "Accept the good," a phrase which Jerry himself had told Brian, and that Brian had subsequently said to Audrey many times.
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By what name was Things We Lost in the Fire (2007) officially released in India in Hindi?
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