I was a bit afraid of cheesiness in this movie, since it is lower budget and overtly Christian-influenced (like Bella), but we had heard lots of good things about it, so my wife and I and my mother-in-law went to see it today.
Conclusion: Worth watching! I really got into it and enjoyed it a lot; so did Katie and her mom. It was believable and real–both the husband and wife had faults and were at fault for their marriage dying, and in spite of efforts to mend their marriage, especially by the husband, it was still falling apart and the wife continued wanting a divorce.
The Christian faith is portrayed positively though at times it is a bit heavy-handed, but considering that even mentioning “Jesus” in a serious manner during a movie is considered heavy-handed nowadays, it isn’t that bad.
Fireproof is very funny in several places–the husband is a fireman and his buddies are hilarious: think big, dumb, ox-like guys.
But what struck me most about the movie is how well it showed that it is all too easy to let your marriage die through selfishness and unwillingness to love. Neither the husband nor the wife were overtly “bad”; rather, they were both “good” people by the standards of society, yet they had quit loving each other and turned in on themselves.
The husband’s addiction to pornography is portrayed in a tactful yet truthful way. Pornography was one of the evils poisoning their marriage, and it was refreshing yet appropriately uncomfortable to see it portrayed in a movie. Very few movies are brave enough to call out this elephant in the room, one that hurts so many tens of millions of marriages in our country alone, but Fireproof does. If only overcoming addiction to pornography was as easy as it is in the movie…but that’s another topic.
The movie had some songs that sounded great, so I also just went on iTunes and bought the ones by Leeland and Grey Holiday.
I went yesterday and saw this…and really liked it as well! In addition to the movie, I loved that the credits listed “prayer coordinator.”
Thank you for the well written review. I wanted to write one but just couldn’t. You expressed my sentiments exactly. Glad you enjoyed it. We went to see it Friday night.
What!? No props for Third Day? Dude, their new album rocks!
My wife and I went to see \Fireproof\ today. We do not go to movies but wanted to see this one because of the good reports of it. It is wonderful! There would be a lot less divorces if people would see this and see what can be done to correct faults in each other. God bless them for doing this. To me, it is phenomenal!!