HOPE COMES WITH LETTING GO.
When Audrey’s (Halle Berry) husband Brian (David Duchovny) is murdered, she becomes closer to his best friend (Benicio Del Toro), a screwed-up drug addict. Director Susanne Bier’s first American film is another display of her knack for emotional dramas where people’s lives fall apart; the script shows similarities between the hardships of drug addiction and grief and how two people understand each other better because of that. Bier also expertly builds our sympathy for the family in the early flashbacks… and when they end give us a chance to join in mourning. Del Toro is obviously perfect for his part, but Berry does a good job as well.
2007-U.S. 119 min. Color. Widescreen. Produced by Sam Mendes, Sam Mercer. Directed by Susanne Bier. Screenplay: Allan Loeb. Cast: Halle Berry (Audrey Burke), Benicio Del Toro (Jerry Sunborne), David Duchovny (Brian Burke), Alison Lohman, John Carroll Lynch, Paula Newsome.
Last word: “At the point where I received this script, I’d probably read about 200 scripts and most scripts were pretty boring. This was not. This was gripping, touching and I was very moved by it. But I was also laughing a lot while reading it. I found that very compelling. I’ve wanted to make a movie in English for some time – not to earn money or something but because I happen to believe that I’ve got some stories to tell and something I want to convey to the world. To do that in Danish you’re bound to have an art-house audience if it’s not in the English language. I thought it would be really challenging and stimulating to try and see whether I could target a bigger audience and do it in English.” (Bier, indieLondon)
