Fireproof (2008)

Fireproof is a film about Caleb, a fireman who is having a really hard time in his marriage and is at the edge of divorce. Just as Caleb is about to agree to divorce his wife, his dad steps in and gives him a book called The Love Dare to help him to learn how to love as God loves and hopefully save his marriage. The film starts a little slow, with dialogue that has much to be desired, but becomes more real when we see Caleb and his wife fight for the first time. The film was not made on a large Hollywood budget, at times things may seem cheaply done, but the overall message of the film is priceless. The movie does a good job of not fixing the couples marriage too quickly but showing that loving as Christ is difficult. I thought that the running theme of the hard work that Caleb puts in his job and the struggle of the love dare worked well. This guy has some room to talk about hardship when he knows what it is like to pull people out of fires.



In the film Caleb has a lot of friends that work with him in the firehouse that we see him interact with in some funny way. But I sometimes felt like the time taken out for the funny moments were not related to the story of the film. That is not to say that I feel that humor shouldn't have been used but that it should have been more interrelated to the plot. The comedy does help to give us a break in a deeply serious film that deals with some hard stuff to face like divorce.



Another issue I had with the film was that while in many parts of the film it is hinted at that he has problems with porn and anger, aside from The Love Dare, he does not seek professional help. Now, I do not think that they need to spend a lot of time showing Caleb get outside help, but at least they could try hinting at it. But, I did like the way it symbolically showed Caleb overcome his struggles. The best part of the movie is the way that we see Caleb learn to love with what Pope John Paul II called disinterested tenderness, which is when one does acts of kindness performed with out an ulterior motive, to show that they truly love their beloved (The Battle for Purity, Christopher West.)

While the makers of fireproof did not have a lot of money, they where able to pull off a story worth telling that has a message is uncommion in movies today. Four out of Five starts for the over all message of the film.