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 Chris' Review: I'm just going to warn you up front. Spoilers ahead. Ladder 49 entertained me while I was in the theatre. It surprised me with the ending. Hours afterward I was still mulling it over in my mind... and I came to the conclusion that even though I was entertained, I felt cheated, and I really didn't like all that much. If you want a good firefighter film, go watch Backdraft with Kurt Russell. There wasn't all this pretension in that movie. Backdraft gave us the idea of heroes and selflessness without as much melodrama. Not to say that there weren't good qualities to the film. Joaquin Phoenix turns in a brilliant performance, and it's a good thing. As Madrigal pointed out to me, the entire film is set on his shoulders. Really, he is the only character that matters. Everyone else, even Travolta, is window dressing. They may be acting their asses off, but it doesn't matter because there really isn't anywhere for their characters to go. Suffice to say that if no one was paying any attention to Phoenix before, they will now. Even through little mistakes of dropped accents, Phoenix makes you really care for a tough and introverted character. Which is a good thing on a number of levels. A good percentage of the film is given to showing the relationships of these heroes. Whether it's the camaraderie of the station house or the everyday moments at home with the kids... you're drawn into Jack Morrison's (Phoenix) life and the strong bonds he has with the people there. Unfortunately, the script is weak in describing it. It's a wonderful concept that wasn't fully realized. Because the rest of the characters were drawn so two-dimensionally, Jack's multi-facetted brilliance is absorbed by dull planes. Travolta does his best with what he is given, but only near the end, when Jack is out of the picture, is he able to draw your eye. Mentioning Jack being out of the picture... Originally when the movie ended with the main character dying in the line of duty, I was touched. I was surprised that the studio had taken such a risk. I was thrilled that we didn't have to cow to some supernatural luck in the final seconds that manages to save the main character just so that we could all go home feeling good. Then I realized something. This WAS the safe ending. The studio didn't take a risk. Ladder 49 was released around the time of the third anniversary of September 11th. All those firefighters dying. This was a tribute film, obviously, but the safe ending was tying it into the 9/11 tragedy! This is when I started to feel cheated. This is when I started to look back at all the typical Hollywood devices, all the tear-jerker filming, all the gigantic swells of orchestral music during the dramatic scenes. This was FORMULA! It was formula from beginning to end and it ALMOST had me! Look, I'm not the type of person to bash formula. There is a reason that formulas are used: because they work! Unfortunately, when you look back at Ladder 49, there really isn't anything else there. You have a couple good actors, a thin plot, thin writing, cliché music, a dumptruck full of melodrama and pretension, coupled with a "surprise" ending that turns out to be more about what will work, than originality. One thing that I did find to be very original... the use of the "shaky camera" technique. The ONLY time it was used was when Jack was in a state of both mental and emotional confusion. It worked perfectly. It wasn't overused in EVERY scene... only when it really mattered, only when it furthered the story. Well done. It's nice to see cinematographers finally getting around to using methods for the purpose of story-telling rather than just because it's popular. I just can't say anything more about this film. It left me disappointed in the end. It was Hollywood fluff disguised under a layer of grit and soot. I give it two thumbs up. It did entertain me, and Joaquin Phoenix needs to be seen more, but in the test of time, people will remember Backdraft before they remember Ladder 49 when they think of firefighters.   Jim's Review: From what I’m to understand, most firefighters don’t particularly care for "Backdraft". They feel it’s too over-the-top, too sensationalized, and simply not a very good representation of what they do. So, the mantle of "Best Firefighter Movie" has been up in the air for quite some time. Unfortunately, if "Ladder 49" assumes it, it will be more out of default than merit. The film begins innocently enough...Baltimore Firefighter Jack Morrison (Joaquin Phoenix) is doing what firemen do: He’s bundled up in several layers of protective gear, charging through a huge, burning factory alongside several of his comrades. They’re searching for trapped workers, and they find a few. It is while lowering one of these trapped men to the safety of a cherry picker that the floor he’s standing on collapses beneath him, and he plummets a few stories onto a huge pile of rubble. As he is struggling to regain consciousness, the film flashes us back to his first day on the job as a rookie. Fresh-faced and eager, Jack plunges headlong into some harmless hazing courtesy of his new co-workers, most notably Captain Mike Kennedy (John Travolta). The film goes to great lengths to portray Kennedy as gruff but lovable, fun-loving but possessed of enough sense to take his job seriously. Trovolta is, as per usual, above average...if not by much. After the conclusion of Jack’s introduction vignette, we zip once again ahead to his current predicament. And thus the structure of the film is established: Flashback / present, lather, rinse, repeat. Soon we see Jack wooing his wife-to-be Linda (Jacinda Barrett) in the grocery store. Next up, it’s the sad day when Jack’s buddy Danny (Billy Burke) plummets tragically through the roof of a blazing tenement to his death. Now is Jack and Linda’s wedding, and soon we meet his kids. Not long after, He transfers from "Pipeman" ("Head hose guy" in layman’s terms) to Danny’s old job of Search and Rescue. His brothers are injured on the job. Interspersed with all of these scenes are stretches of Jack fighting valiantly for his live in the fiery factory. It’s emotional, sure. Sometimes even moving. But it also all feels inexcusably perfunctory. Every milestone the audience more or less expects is gotten around to sooner or later. And the paint-by-numbers plot isn’t much helped by the "Photo Album" feel of the narrative; we don’t so much get a feel for the characters as a feel for the things that happen to them. We flip the pages through the important turning points in their lives, and a series of moments is played out. And a series of moments bereft of plotline does not a movie make. Part of the problem is Phoenix. His Jack Morrison is a hard character to sympathize with. He has a strong drive to help people, and of course, firefighters are by default selfless heroes. But beyond that, there’s not much reason to like him all that much. He’s dull-eyed, argumentative, has a quick temper, and generally comes off as not really all that bright or warm. Sure, that means he’s human, and not a saint (and that’s probably the point), but it just doesn’t work. Some of this may be attributable to the writing, but Phoenix’s performance just strikes me as wrong for the film. Jacinda Barrett also seemed to have some minor issues. Chief among them (and I really shouldn’t hold this against her, but I have to) is her youth. Her Linda has a pretty, fresh-faced quality that well suits the ingénue she begins as. The problem is, she doesn’t make much progress either visually or characteristically over the course of the ten years the film takes place during. Two kids, the stress of having a husband with a life-threatening job, and a decade’s worth of growth later, she still looks dewy-eyed and magazine-cover fresh. Would a little age makeup be too much to ask for? Show me a person who looks exactly the same at ANY stage of their life as they did ten years earlier, and I’ll show you a plastic surgery addict. Travolta fares better. He may be a bit hard to swallow in certain scenes, but overall, his Captain Kennedy is a respectable authority figure; part father, part class clown, but all business when the situation calls for it. His concern for the firefighters under his responsibility and command never felt forced. There’s no question that 9/11 was a horrific tragedy, and did much to shine the spotlight on the unsung-hero status of the nation’s firefighting personnel. And "Ladder 49" is quite obviously a love letter to them. It’s just a shame that it’s an amateurish love letter filled with heart-dotted "I"s and hackneyed prose. These people deserve better. "Ladder 49" gets two thumbs up. As I said...There are emotional moments...But after the fact one can’t help but feel cheated and more than a little manipulated into having experienced them. BackHome - Info - Reviews - Map - Message Board - Photo Album |
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