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What is Film Forum? Well, with so many film reviews published, and so little time to read them all, I make a note of any review that I find particularly thoughtful, persuasive, or worth wrestling.<\/p>\n
Be sure to check back, as I\u2019ve only just begun to read reviews of these films, and I\u2019ll add more interesting excerpts as I come across them. Feel free to submit more reviews, or even your own, in the comments below.<\/p>\n
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Chris Willman \u2013 Entertainment Weekly:<\/strong><\/p>\n Some of the tenser domestic moments will hit home with battle-scarred marrieds of any religious stripe, and the couple\u2019s problems are candid by evangelical feature standards, although they hardly rate high on the secular dramaturgy scale: He\u2019s got an Internet porn habit, and she\u2019s enjoying an unconsummated flirtation with a doctor at work.<\/p>\n These are temptations faced by Christian and non-Christian couples alike, but the filmmakers hedge their bets by making the young marrieds agnostic at the start of the movie, in order to turn Fireproof<\/em> into a manual for eternal as well as marital salvation. (\u201dI\u2019m in!\u201d Cameron announces to a spiritually mentoring firefighter pal.) You probably can\u2019t blame pastors moonlighting as moviemakers for wanting to pack their film with multiple messages, but the conversion subplot feels shoehorned into the more crucial marital doings<\/a>, as if coming to Jesus might be just one of a long checklist of steps to restore sizzle to your marriage, right between buying roses and preparing a candlelit dinner.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Peter Chattaway \u2013 Christianity Today Movies<\/strong><\/p>\n Like most Christian films, Fireproof includes a scene in which the protagonist makes a decision for Christ, but one of the things I like about the Kendricks\u2019 films\u2014including not only Fireproof and Facing the Giants but also their first film, Flywheel\u2014is that this moment usually comes about halfway through the story, instead of at the end, which is where it normally happens in Billy Graham and Left Behind movies. Where those other films treat first-time commitments and rededications to Christ as the climax to the story, like the wedding at the end of a fairy tale, the Kendricks show these moments of decision to be true turning points; the person who lived one way at the beginning of the film learns how to live another way by the end.<\/p>\n However, in Fireproof, it is not quite clear how essential Caleb\u2019s conversion is to his efforts to save his marriage. Flywheel and Facing the Giants concerned men who already had some sort of connection to a church community, but Caleb only has his parents and a friend or two for spiritual support. The Kendricks have said that Caleb needs to know Christ if he is to love his wife as Christ loved the church\u2014but by that same token, shouldn\u2019t he also be involved in an actual church? What if someone were to follow the steps outlined in The Love Dare without being a Christian? While the film works well enough as an extension of Sherwood Baptist\u2019s marriage ministry, it is hard to escape the feeling that the evangelistic element has been tacked on.<\/a><\/p>\n But let\u2019s not quibble too much. They say an audience will forgive a movie\u2019s flaws if it gives them a solid ending, and Fireproof definitely has that.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Neil Genzlinger \u2013The New York Times<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cFireproof\u201d may not be the most profound movie ever made, but it does have its commendable elements, including that rarest of creatures on the big (or small) screen: characters with a strong, conservative Christian faith who don\u2019t sound crazy.<\/p>\n . . . The screenwriters, the brothers Alex Kendrick (who also directed) and Stephen Kendrick, give the story some pull by not making Catherine into the usual neglected wallflower of a wife. Instead she\u2019s a publicist at a hospital who spends most of the film contemplating whether to hop into bed with one of the doctors.<\/p>\n For two-thirds of the movie, the filmmakers show a restraint rare in the movie-with-a-Message genre, so much so that the two most appealing characters are those nudging Caleb toward Christianity (Mr. Malcom and Ken Bevel as a fellow firefighter).<\/p>\n . . . But the cast of mostly amateurs (Mr. Cameron of \u201cGrowing Pains\u201d being the exception) is surprisingly good. And the moments of comic relief are mildly amusing.<\/p>\n Only at the end do the filmmakers get heavy-handed, and they seem not to know when to wrap up, letting the movie run on for several smarmy scenes beyond its natural endpoint. Until then, though, this is a decent attempt to combine faith and storytelling that will certainly register with its target audience.<\/p>\n And maybe with other folks as well: among those caring-for-marriage tips are some that anyone could use to improve any type of relationship, with or without the God part.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Richard Corliss \u2013 TIME:<\/strong><\/p>\n Fireproof<\/em> is a Christian parable, a sermon ornamented with a story, about a firefighter named Caleb (Kirk Cameron) whose marriage with Catherine (Erin Bethea) is falling apart. This theological imperative makes the film an anomaly among current releases. But almost as daring is its tackling of that taboo movie subject, an ordinary marriage. This isn\u2019t a weepie, where the beautiful wife is dying, or a thriller, with one spouse trying to kill the other\u2014just two people facing the burdens of living together after the first passion has ebbed, when the idle words and gestures of the person you used to love threaten to ascend to the level of war crimes.<\/p>\n \u2026In theory, Fireproof<\/em> is as alien to me as Religulous<\/em> is familiar. At more than two hours, the film will make those viewers restless who aren\u2019t utterly resistant. But there\u2019s something affecting about its artless earnestness, its aim to dramatize large portions of ordinary lives that most movies ignore<\/a>. I wasn\u2019t converted, but I was charmed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n More here<\/a>.<\/p>\n UPDATE 1:<\/strong><\/p>\n Brett McCracken on <\/a><\/strong>Fireproof<\/a><\/strong><\/em>:<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n So I saw Fireproof<\/em> over the weekend (as did, apparently, quite a few people: the $500,000-budgeted film earned $6 million in its opening weekend and landed at #4). I previously had no intentions of seeing the film, until my colleague Peter Chattaway gave it a surprisingly positive (3\/4 star) review<\/a> for Christianity Today<\/em>. Having seen the trailer earlier this summer and lamenting the maudlin quality of Christian film<\/a>, I had very little hope that Fireproof <\/em>would be good, and suspected that it wouldn\u2019t even be particularly watchable.<\/p>\n Turns out Fireproof <\/em>was watchable (certainly moreso than its predecessor,Facing the Giants<\/em>, which I couldn\u2019t watch with a straight face), though by no means was it good<\/em>.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t laugh as much during Fireproof <\/em>as I did during Facing the Giants<\/em>, and I only felt the urge to look away from the screen a few times. There were oodles of uncomfortably saccharine moments and heavy-handed digressions of overacting, but it was a huge, huge improvement over Giants<\/em>. This makes me happy, but it neither excuses Fireproof <\/em>for its numerous failures nor justifies it as a successful film.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n UPDATE 2: Michael Leary<\/a> of film-think weighs in at artsandfaith.com<\/a>:<\/p>\n
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