LADDER 49 HOT OR NOT?

Paying honor to the American Firefighter Ladder 49 handles it's emotional moments well it's just that we've seen them all before. Only the truly spectacular fire effects make this movie standout amongst it's peers. And speaking of peers will someone tell Travolta his star status prevents audiences from accepting him in roles like this? You could do worse than take your family to see this engaging slice of firehouse life but you're liable to walk away thinking it was more like a slice of firehouse cliche film life than the real thing.

LADDER 49

Touchstone Pictures
Dir Jay Russell
Rated PG-13 for intense fire and rescue situations, and for language

Before reading the rest of this review let me assure you I give Ladder 49 a solid 3 out of 5 stars. You will be entertained, witness some great action and be reminded that firefighters deserve your deep and abiding appreciation and respect for their service. There have been shockingly few firefighter films since 9 11- at least big screen ones. Television has pumped out plenty of episodic and filmic stuff. So it's ironic that with a much bigger budget and higher profile cast Ladder 49 never quite emerges as too much more than a very good TV movie. The less you know going in the better except to say, unlike Backdraft, this is a straightforward look at the lives of firefighters that doesn't bother to add crime or mystery into it's mix.

The film follows Jack Morrison (Joaquin Phoenix) through his career from rookie to seasoned firefighting veteran. Along the way he relies on support from his Chief Mike Kennedy (John Travolta) and his other firefighter brothers. Also cast is Robert Patrick as Lenny Richter, the grizzled grumpy veteran.

Jay Russell's best known and loved film so far has been My Dog Skip, which I had the privilege of screening for the first time at the Roger Ebert Forgotten Film Festival this year. Skip himself (who also played the dog on Frasier but who inexplicably did not make an appearance, as a firedog in Ladder 49) was in attendance. The warm humor and light sentiment of that film and that event seem to match Russell's talents better than the high drama of Ladder 49 which has lots of reasonably well handled sentimental moments but few surprises for movie goers who've ever been in a movie firehouse before.

Though cast with great actors the film builds camaraderie among its characters through stock in trade situations and personalities. There's the obligatory initiation of the new comer, the drunken local bar parties, the tough guy who just can't keep his mouth shut, the fatherly Chief , and the spectacular fire and escape sequences. There are parades and awards ceremonies and other gatherings one expects, there are family fights, and firefighters face the death of friends and co-workers debating whether firefighting is really the life for them.

I know almost all these things are part of the real life firefighter experience but Ladder 49 shows them to us without adding anything new or making us appreciate them any more than their verisimilitude to reality demands. As an appreciation of firefighters Ladder 49 falls short in my opinion of another film made to showcase the bravery and dedication of another branch of public service, Courage Under Fire. What I think was really needed here was an unknown cast and either a more compelling conflict for the central character or a better fleshing out of and wider focus on the rest of the characters in the story.

Let me close with a word about the action sequences, which involve some of the very best fire sequences I've ever seen on film. Huge explosions, collapsing structures and dynamic chest rattling sound design bring these moments to raging life onscreen communicating better than any part of the film the danger that firefighters face.

Ladder 49 offers a good time, but it's not a great film. You could do worse than take your family to see it but you could do better by visiting a real firehouse sometime later and thanking the men and women who work there.