Things We Lost in the Fire

AMG Review of Things We Lost in the Fire

William Ruhlmann
All Music Guide

Gustavo Santaolalla and Johan Soderqvist's score for director Susanne Bier's film Things We Lost in the Fire is an appropriate accompaniment to the low-key drama. The Danish Bier, an adherent of the European "Dogma" brand of filmmaking -- naturalistic acting, natural lighting, handheld camera, etc. -- brought much of this approach to an American "Hollywood" film with big movie stars (Halle Berry, Benicio Del Toro, David Duchovny) in telling her story about a recently widowed woman and her platonic but nevertheless involved relationship with a drug addict who was a friend of her husband. Santaolalla and Sodverqvist provide a large number of short cues (30 in 37 minutes on the soundtrack album) dominated by delicately played acoustic guitars, with occasional orchestral or electronic backgrounds. It's a quiet, careful, somber style in keeping with the subject and style of the film.