With drugs, despair, a Danish director and Benicio Del Toro, what more could a drama ask for? Yet while filled with spectacular shots and a talented cast, Things We Lost in the Fire fails to be an excellent film. The potential is there, but the script prevents it from being truly transcendent.

Acclaimed Danish director Susanne Bier’s first Hollywood film tells the tragic story of a wife’s struggle to cope with the recent death of her husband. Starring Halle Berry as the depressed mother and widow, Audrey, and Benicio Del Toro as Jerry, the heroin-addicted best friend of Audrey’s late husband, Brian, the film tells the story of how Audrey reaches out to a man she once hated in order to find peace in her new life.

Reminiscent of Turkish filmmaker Ferzan Ozpetek’s 2001 drama Ignorant Fairies, where an upper class woman also reaches out to a man close to her husband who was tragically killed, Things We Lost in the Fire deals with similarly difficult subject matter. Audrey is a well-off housewife who doesn’t know what to do in her spare time now that her husband is not in her life. She doesn’t work, she doesn’t have money issues, and taking care of her children doesn’t occupy enough hours of her day. As she suffers from slight insomnia and overall loneliness, she needs someone to reach out to, someone to provide comfort, but not to be a replacement.

This is where Jerry comes in. Benicio Del Toro is effective as the drug-addicted, troubled best friend of Brian. Del Toro’s natural worn-out and strange looks (think Joaquin Phoenix) make him effective as the distant, disturbed man that Audrey never knew well. He exhibits a sexual appeal that Audrey feels but represses as she ultimately moves in with him. As a result, their relationship becomes close and at times awkward: sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. A weird kind of attraction is there, bound up in the memory of the dead husband. Halle Berry does a wonderful job displaying why her character emotionally reaches out to Del Toro’s. The extent of her confusion and her sense of loss are apparent.

Bier’s film is another take on tragic death and learning how to cope with its consequences. Yet despite a chilling score and strong performances (even one from former X-Files star David Duchovny as the dead husband Brian), the film fails to inspire or be compelling. It relies too heavily on its extreme close-up and handheld shots instead of providing a meatier plot and better dialogue. As Audrey screams at Jerry, “Why wasn’t it you, Jerry? Why wasn’t it you?”, implying Jerry should have been the one shot, we can’t help but despise Audrey. He doesn’t fight back to her cruel words–Del Toro’s Jerry is loyal enough to help her out, and he is a strong enough character to not retaliate against her demeaning words. Instead, we feel less sympathetic towards the tragic Audrey, and more confused about their abusive relationship. Nonetheless, Del Toro’s seething and damaged performance makes his every onscreen moment something, at very least, to focus on.

Screenwriter Allan Loeb should have deepened the plot further, instead of creating a movie that ends so unfulfilled. The movie is not preachy; on the contrary it fails to truly convey any meaningful message. Only the passionate performances and excessive close-ups are memorable in Things We Lost in the Fire. Look for Del Toro or Berry to be nominated during awards season, but don’t expect this film to garner positive attention for much else.