Title: Fireproof
ISBN: / 0602341003391
Author: Provident-Integrity Distribution
Publisher: Provident-Integrity Distribution
Release: 01/2009
Binding: DVD-Video
Playing Time: 122 mins
A feel-good drama,
Fireproof has a strong agenda: stay
married, lead an honest life, and let your faith in a higher power help
guide you. A still boyish-looking Kirk Cameron (
Growing Pains)
stars as Caleb Holt, a mercurial-tempered firefighter whose marriage is
on the rocks. He clearly enjoys his status as a hero, but it comes at
the expense of his marriage.
His wife Catherine (Erin Bethea) is tired
of the distance and wants him to make more of an effort at home, rather
than surf porn on the Internet and hoard his earnings toward his dream
fishing boat instead of helping out her disabled mother. Faced with
impending divorce, Caleb's dad challenges him to follow the "40-day
love dare," in which each task (cook her dinner, say nothing negative,
etc.) is meant for him to better understand love and commitment and try
and win his wife back.
The third film by brothers Alex and Stephen
Kendrick,
Fireproof is the siblings' most polished feature.
Cameron does a fine job of making Caleb real and believable, even when
we're not always liking him. Though saddled at times with maudlin
lines, Cameron adds emotion and range to his role. There is a not so
subtle theme that the Holts--who at the beginning of the film are
agnostic--needed religion to save their marriage. Clearly,
Fireproof
believes in its agenda and was made with the Christian audience in
mind. Whether secular audiences will fall under its spell as well is
debatable. But no one should walk away from the film offended.