Reel To Reel: Fireproof

A serious case of heartburn.

How It Rates: ***
Starring: Kirk Cameron
Rated: PG
Red Flags: One scary scene involving a rescue from train tracks

Fireproof is not a movie but a marriage seminar with a plot. Its writing has as much nuance as an ABC Afterschool Special, and it preaches at times. But let's be clear: this film is not designed as forgettable escapism. The producer, Sherwood Baptist Church of Georgia (which also made Facing The Giants), is using film as a ministry to reach people who aren't connecting with God. No doubt this picture will become an element of Christian marriage-counseling classes. And even with a meager $500,000 budget and faint star power, it still makes an emotional connection many Hollywood films don't. At least it did for me, and I'm not married.

Kirk Cameron -- yes, the one-time kid star from Growing Pains -- plays firefighter Caleb Holt, a frustrated lifesaver with a crumbling marriage. He can't understand why his wife doesn't appreciate what he does or why he wants to buy a boat. Catherine Holt (Erin Bethea) has the explanation on her fingertips: he's constantly away from home, he doesn't help around the house, he doesn't show her enough respect, and he's looking at that "trash on the Internet." Caleb twists his wife's criticisms into a lack of appreciation. Before the first reel is over, Mrs. Holt decides she wants a divorce.

Caleb's father, a saintly figure who has fixed his own rocky marriage, urges his son to try 40-day emergency marriage repair kit called "The Love Dare." A handwritten journal instructs Caleb to change his attitude towards his marriage, one step per day. Day one: stop making negative comments. Day two: do something unexpected your wife will appreciate... and so forth. We're never told who originated the Dare, but we do know it's coming to a bookstore near you in 2009.

However, Caleb is instructed not to tell his wife he's doing the Dare, which is like trying to counsel a marriage with only one spouse present. Catherine doesn't know what to make of Caleb's intentions, but she's feeling something real in a doctor (Walter Burnett) who works at the hospital where she's employed as a spokeswoman. This is where the movie, perhaps by accident, stumbles upon the truth I see in the newsroom: paid communicators aren't always skillful communicators.

Fireproof lets us tag along for a couple of rescues, including a heart-stopping accident scene where firefighters must pull a car off train tracks. The sequence has an improvisational simplicity and believability Hollywood could only wish for. We also get the compulsory element of the big, dangerous house fire which adds a novel escape technique. A few other characters exist only to provide plot advancement and perspective, such as the devoted-husband firefighter and the hot-stuff rookie, people you might encounter if John Bunyan wrote Backdraft.

But again, I stress, this isn't a Hollywood picture. Even at its preachiest, Fireproof still has a way of drilling a way into your emotions and your beliefs, if you're willing to listen and think. This is a film you're supposed to see with someone you love, but I saw it alone and still took away this message: you can't go through life without God. A key scene involves Caleb and his father talking about this next to a cross erected for a youth camp. I know a lot of people might roll their eyes at it, but mine watered as I flashed back to getting right with God last year.

L.A. Weekly columnist Nikki Finke, who's no evangelist, says Fireproof's independent success demonstrates mainstream Hollywood doesn't know how to make profitable Christian-themed movies. That's because with Hollywood, it's about making money off a demographic. With Sherwood Baptist, it's about giving people something they can believe in.

More on the Web: fireproofmymarriage.com