Berry plays Audrey Burke, a woman who raise her two kids alone after her husband, Brian, is killed in a senseless attack. Del Toro plays Jerry Sunborne, a drug addict who was best friends with Brian. As the two try to get over Brian's death, they come together in a relationship that threatens to spill over into a romance both would find disrespectful to Brian.
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Full Synopsis
The situation is that a woman-Audrey loses her soul mate of a husband,Brian while he was attempting to come to the aid of a woman being beaten by her husband-not a fire as you would think, although the title does have meaning for something more obscure that is explained later on.
Brian's best friend since he was about 7 is Jerry-a former lawyer and current heroin addict who despite his addiction, maintains a loyalty to Brian that even over rides his addiction.
Brian's neighbor, occasional business guy and friend-Howard is saddened by the loss of his good, gentle hearted friend. Howard is in an unhappy marriage he is too weak to leave, he saw Brian and Audrey as proof marital bliss existed.
Kelly is a member of the Narcotic Anonymous group Jerry attends after Brian's brutal murder. She seems minor at the beginning but she is catalyst for helping Jerry the right way, in the long run.
The movie is show in a series of flashbacks, we start at the actual gathering of family at Audrey and Brian's home, to mourn his passing. Harper and Dory, their children are devastated, particularly Harper (whose older). The children see a man wander over to them, wearing a suit that appears too large and he correctly guesses their names-much to their surprise. Since Jerry had so many issues, he has never met the children, but Brian has told him all about them. He proves this by correctly guessing how Dory got a scar on his nose.
In the interest of avoiding confusion, I will tell it chronologically.
Before Brian dies:
Audrey and Brian have a small clash about Dory not putting his head under water. We also see the family returning from vacation and Brian wants to go visit Jerry-it's his birthday and he has no one else. Audrey complains about this-when it comes to Jerry it is a rare instance of clashing between Audrey and Brian. Brian goes and spends the evening with Jerry, jokes around with him telling tall tales of Audrey cheating on him (a running joke between the guys) and buys him a bunch of groceries. It is implied this is the last time Jerry sees Brian alive.
Audrey mentions the following day that she is missing $60 she left in the ashtray of the car and immediately points the finger at Jerry. Brian tells her Jerry would never do that-not to him. This is important later.
Brian then goes on the fateful ice cream run. As he gets out of his car, he sees a man beating his wife/girlfriend to a bloody pulp. Brian, ever the do gooder steps in, makes the guy realize he is hurting her, and asks him to count to 10 (a method to calm someone down) while he calls 911 and checks and comforts the woman. When Brian softly brushes her hair back and tells her she'll be okay, the guy loses it and whips out a gun, Brian shouts NO! and then we see Audrey wondering where Brian is. A police car pulls up. Not only was Brian shot, the guy shot the woman and himself. The brutal, senseless crime affects Audrey and Jerry in different ways.
Audrey is prepping the house when she realizes she never told Jerry about Brian being killed. She enlists her brother who takes her to the seedy side of town and they explain what happened. Jerry is devastated, is in a daze (he was still high) gets cleaned up and goes with them. He decides that the one man who never gave up on him deserved better than what happened and in his friend's memory, he now has an actual reason to be clean and goes cold turkey, staying at a clinic as a care taker, however he is determined not to take Methodone.
Audrey asks him to come and stay with her and the kids, claiming she needs the money, Jerry agrees and decides to go.
Howard is very kind to him, getting him to exercise with him, and explains he wants to give him a job, which requires a State Certification test, but he thinks he's up to it. Jerry gets healthier and bonds with the children. Kelly bonds with him at NA meetings, particularly when he explains his friend died a hero and how that inspired him to go clean. Kelly obviously admires Jerry, however she warns him cold turkey can be hard and she's there if he needs support.
One night while having a nightly chat with Jerry, Audrey and Jerry nearly kiss, stopped short by both pulling back-Jerry even smacks himself in the mouth with his hand at the fact he would be so awful to do this to Brian's wife. Some tension forms from this.
Hanging out at Howard's pool with the kids, Jerry succeds in getting Dory to put his head under water-an act that reminds Audrey how much she misses Brian. One day Harper is reported having missed school-her mother is frantic, but Jerry figures out where Harper went from remembering Brian telling him how he used to pull Harper from school during a particular movie marathon held one week a year. Although relieved at Harper's return, Audrey lashes out at Jerry and tells him to leave. Harper begs her mother not to do this, she doesn't want her friend Jerry to go back on drugs and if her mom makes him leave she knows he will. Audrey is firm about this.
The lack of Jerry's presence is obvious. While shopping, Audrey spills her groceries in her car and picking up some tomatoes finds the 3 $20 bills she mentioned were missing to Brian. She has insisted Jerry stole it for drugs, and Brian insisted Jerry would never steal from him. She feels awful. She and her brother set up the room Jerry was staying in for a detox, her huge brother and her located Jerry with the help of Kelly-who was concerned he was no longer attending the NA meetings. Harper catches Jerry attempting to steal some of her mother's silver and cries to him not to do drugs, ashamed, Jerry leaves, crying. Kelly helps Audrey detox Jerry and tells her how well a clinic worked for her, pointing out that Jerry really needs proper methods to kick the habit.
Meanwhile, Neal and Howard help out with the detoxing of Jerry. Dory sneaks in one day with a cute Star Wars thermos of water and a cookie. They have a very funny conversation about C3PO and R2D2, which later Audrey teases him about. Jerry is detoxed and to celebrate, the family has a dinner with Howard, Kelly,Neal and Audrey's sister. Someone is trying to remember something about Brian and Jerry fills in the details, starting everyone having some fun with a sort of "How Well I Know Brian" conversation.
This conversation leads to the title of the film. Apparently there had been a fire in their garage (the room that now serves as a guest room/Jerry's room) and how upset Audrey was and Brian comforted her by explaining that the items they lost were just things, but they always had each other. Later, Audrey is in Brian's office, she had been avoiding it since his death and she finds the list of the things they lost in the fire-implying that somehow Brian was going to try and replace what he could. She finally breaks down and cries about how she misses him so much, Jerry comforts her.
Kelly (who clearly cares for Jerry) convinces Audrey to have her bring him to a clinic so he can stay clean, the concept is when he gets out, Howard will get him a job and he can maintain a healthy relationship with Audrey and the friends he has made in her family, and be there for the children. Howard-who intially had decided to divorce his wife has worked things out with her, feeling that the divorce was him running from the problem, but not solving it (like when Jerry went cold turkey).
Audrey and the children have support from their family and Howard-she knows she can go on and realizes how important it is to have someone there for you, no matter what. Harper who was mad as Jerry for leaving for rehab reads a note Jerry gave her, promising to be there for her, he needs to get better and once he is, he knows he can never let her down. Harper chases Kelly's car to the street and makes Jerry promise to always be her friend, forever "like you were with daddy". He promises and he and Kelly go off to the clinic.
The movies ends with Audrey, Harper and Dory decorating Brian's grave with flowers-they hadn't gone since the funeral and the stone is now up-they talk to Brian as they work together to arrange the flowers.
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