Fireproof
by Alex Kendrick
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DVD details
Actor: Erin Bethea, Jason McLeod, Ken Bevel, Kirk Cameron, Stephen DervanDirector: Alex Kendrick
Brand: Sony
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; Portuguese (Subtitled); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); Chinese (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 1.85:1
Running Time: 118 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-01-27
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
DVD Reviews of Fireproof
DVD Review: Good, with faults
Summary: 4 Stars
*spoilers*
Fireman Caleb Holt is having a rocky time with his marriage, from his addiction with porn to his wife's resentment about how he's so often gone. Fights in their house are daily, from snide to yelling and with cutting remarks from both sides. When his wife, Catherine, finally tells him in tears that she just wants out, he yells back that that's fine with him. The marriage seems destined to end, until Caleb's Christian father sends him a package with a book called "The Love Dare", a 40-day challenge for couples on unconditional love. Caleb begins it tentatively, without telling his wife, and learns to persevere even after she gives him nothing in return.
You can guess that things turn out well, this being a Christian film with the message to never give up. I, however, was not by any means satisfied with the actions of some of the characters by the time the movie ended. From the beginning, the couple Caleb and Catherine have iniquities between them that keep them apart: Caleb has his occasional porn addiction, his work, a bad temper, and his unconditional demand for respect; Catherine has a flirting man at work who treats her better than her husband does, stupid negative friends that tell her to give up, biting sarcasm, and her unconditional demand for respect. Both are convinced that the other's the problem; both have issues they need to work on. The problem is, both of them do NOT end up focusing on fixing themselves. For the first 50 minutes of the film, Caleb does all the work in the marriage.
I understand that love is about giving relentlessly without expecting a reward, but I found some of Catherine's treatment of her husband to be inexcusably rude. He buys her flowers, she sniffs at them; he makes her coffee, she stalks out; he says he'll take care of something important, she grouches that he should have done it already. After he fixes her dinner, she coldly says she doesn't love him. Then, after he gets rid of his own final hurdle by destroying all his computer software and leaves a note saying he loves her, she leaves the divorce papers on his desk. Now, some of this is understandable; what I realized after watching this movie again was that Catherine was, simply put, very scared and confused. After the dinner scene, the film shows her crying in bed. After Caleb's failed first attempts to please her, the film shows her telling her friends about it and being told in return that, in their experience, he's probably just trying to butter her up for the divorce (this, and the fact that Caleb's heart wasn't really in it and Catherine could tell, explains why she wasn't receptive to him). But you can certainly feel Caleb's terrible frusteration when her biggest rejection comes about. He endures this heartbreak in silence, still doing everything he can to please her, even tending to her while she's sick in bed. And at this point, I think Catherine could have opened up a little more; Caleb had been in earnest for some time. All this sacrifice, all this enduring of her snipishness, wins him nothing but an "I am not ready to trust you again" from her (this is while he's sitting on the foot of her bed and after he's played nursemaid and weepily confessed his sins against her). The scene ends with her softening, but really; enough is enough. Though I sympathized with Catherine, there were times when I thought she was just a spoiled brat, especially while she was accepting the flirtatious behavior of that jerk-doctor at work while her husband was treating her well AND trying so hard to save their marriage. Even when she finally ran to the firehouse to re-declare her love for him, even then, it didn't show her literally say "I'm sorry" for her own disrespect to him. Why? I guess the filmmakers focused more on their embrace and her love declaration at the moment and apologies occured in private, but it would have been NICE to hear an "If I haven't told you I'm sorry, I am" right after her "If I haven't told you I forgive you, I have" line.
Not only was Caleb the only one to really offer a lengthy apology, but I noticed that the men were the ones who came out looking at fault in the film, rather than any of the women: for instance, Caleb finds out that his mother was the one who used the Love Dare in his parents' marriage, not his father. In both marriages, Caleb's and his father's, the husbands are the ones who come out looking more in the wrong, while the wives are put on a pedestal and repented to. In Caleb's father's marriage, his dad wanted to leave and his mother did all the work; she came out being spoken of as a saint. In Caleb's marriage, his wife was the one who wanted a divorce and HE was the one who did all the work; SHE was still the one treated like some put-upon saint. In both cases, the wives were revered, regardless of which position they were in. And something else about Caleb's mother: she annoyed me. When Caleb first went to his parents to let off steam about his marriage, his mother started nagging him about how Catherine must have felt working all the time and needing help. What, and Caleb didn't work? Pulling people out of burning buildings, putting his life at risk? Are you forgetting your son does this, woman? She misses the entire point of listening, and Caleb understandably wants to speak to his father alone then. Later in the film, though, when Caleb finds out his mother and not his father was the one who did the Love Dare, he runs home and weepily asks her forgiveness. For what? My mom, who watched the film with me, said that he'd been short with his mom, but I didn't notice that; what I saw was that old biddy cutting him off and giving him a lecture instead of listening when he needed her. Once again poor Caleb apologized his guts out, even when it seemed unnecessary, to a woman who had not been giving him all HE needed in the relationship either. Yet he was the only one, again, showed to be at fault.
Caleb's mother and wife are not the only examples of women in the film behaving badly and not apologizing. Part of the reason that Catherine's so confused about Caleb and her marriage is that she has some very stupid and gossiping friends advising her. While Caleb has wise male friends telling him not to give up, his wife has a bunch of gossiping snits for friends who egg her on, tell her to force her husband to respect her, and encourage her to drop him. Every action she reports from her husband, they sneer at and second-guess for the worst. When one of the biddies overhears Catherine's husband doing something noble for her, she decides not to tell her about it! Catherine's friends had no business telling her to get out of her marriage, and if she had, a great deal of it would have been due to the fact that those foolish and irresponsible women were goading her by painting her husband as a villain and not even bothering to tell her when he did something nice! I hoped that Catherine would tell them off in the end, or at least be shown giving them a glowing report of Caleb, but she never does; the lazy gossips never pay for their actions in the film.
This is undoubtedly a rare film with an amazing message; some parts were just a little much for my nerves. There were also a few unnecessary additions, one being the wincingly cliche, Southern-slurring elderly father with his corny messages and automatic sermons; the Kendrick brothers should be careful not to fall into a predictable pattern here. Plus, the unfairly heavy load of accountability on the men and the partially absent responsibility of the women did not sit well with me. If the film had shown Catherine doing a little more than saying "I'll think about it" when her husband wept at her feet or perhaps had come across the Love Dare book and tried it privately herself, the film would have had a much more balanced feel.
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