I’ve Finished Watching “Fireproof”

Last night I had the opportunity to preview Fireproof, the latest release from Sherwood Pictures who also brought you Facing The Giants. This movie has received fairly positive reviews and not the least of which was from Tim Challies who reviewed it here.

The story is about Caleb (a firefighter) and Catherine (a PR professional) encountering marriage problems and crises and eventually finding themselves on the brink of divorce. Through the loving intervention of his father, Caleb is led through a journey that would see him accept Christ, take responsibility for his part in ruining his marriage, and ultimately being the catalyst for the conversion of his wife which results in the reconciliation and restoration of his marriage. The plot line as they say is fairly simple.

It’s when you start looking at the movie beyond the plotline that it really begins to show its flaws. Before I get to those, I want to say that I, like Challies, thought the screenplay for the most part was adequate given the budget and resources that a film like this has at its disposal. You didn’t feel, except for about the first ten minutes of the film, that you were watching something that is one step above a college performing arts play. The dialogue of the film, for the most part, was realistic and engaging and it moved along at a decent pace. Meaning, you weren’t left waiting for the scene to change because it was clearly already done. There were also some very humorous scenes mixed in that made you genuinely belly laugh. You put all this together (budget, screenplay, dialogue, special effects, humor, etc) and that’s where it goes from a zero to a five for me.

Unfortunately, that’s where it stops and why I rated the film in a post-screening survey a 5. I’ll discuss the major issues that I have with the film…

First, Caleb and Catherine are show to live in what is clearly a three car garage all brick house and the movie is set in Albany, GA. So given that, doing some basic research, that was at least a 250k - 350k house. So right off the bat, I wonder what percentage of American marriages this is representative of? How many Americans live (a) in their own home and (b) if they do own a home live in a suburban nice development expensive house.

Second, we are presented with Caleb as a firefighter and Catherine as a PR director for the local hospital. Once again, doing some basic research for both Caleb and Catherine, we discover Caleb probably made about $50,000 and Catherine probably made about $130,000. This notion of money being plentiful is definitely not refuted in the movie. So, my question is, what percentage of American marriages have combined incomes of 175k-200k.

Third, Caleb and Catherine are presented as having no children. While this is an interesting character choice for the movie, it was probably done to cut down on having to develop extra characters (the kids) in an already low budget movie. But once again, what percentage of American marriages have no kids?

Why do I bring these things up? Because you put them all together and we’re given a marriage to watch that has very few external pressures other than a porn addiction for the husband and a flirting rich doctor at work for the wife. No money problems. No kid problems. No external surrounding issues. No extended family issues (in fact, both extended families have both parents living and are presented as being there to support this couple as they work through their problems). Those are all neatly taken care of for us and we’re left to watch a very affluent, externally comfortable, self absorbed couple work through their marriage problems. Sorry to say, that may be representative of about 5% of marriages in the United States. And that ain’t how it is in the real world.

What I’m left wondering is why weren’t we presented with a couple that’s been married for five years, has two kids, the husband just got laid off and the house their living in needs serious work but they can’t afford to do it because money is tight. Why weren’t we presented with that couple and shown how the Gospel helps that couple get through life and their marriage. You may say that it’s not important and that I’m nitpicking, but if this thing is going to be billed as a MAJOR outreach tool, I have to believe that most people who have no connection to Christianity are going to go watch this film and see a couple and a marriage situation on the screen that they cannot identify with. It’s a lot easier to work through problems when you have nice neighbors, a lot of money, food on the table, two cars, good jobs, and a good education. Most American marriages don’t have that luxury.

Not only that but we’re presented with a lost couple that yells at each other and never swears and we’re also shown an angry husband, yelling at his wife in her face, but never hitting her. This is an interesting choice considering that between 1/3 and ½ of all women in America have been abused by their partner at some point in their life. I realize it was all probably done the way it was to keep the PG rating on it and the fact that a church ministry is producing it but real life is real life. It seemed all to vanilla and put together to really make a huge impact.

I know I’m going against the grain here, not to mention Challies, but while I hope and believe that God can use this film to change a marriage (I’ve received an email already testifying to that very fact), I suspect that this film will appeal to Christians mainly and will have very little appeal to the larger segment of non-believers. I hope I’m wrong,