Fireproof

Saw Fireproof (thanks, Paul!) It was a very strange movie. The acting was a bit stilted which produced both bewildering and delightful surprises (I don't think the husband was supposed to come off as childishly as he did but I was delighted by the Lynchian super-calm the wife maintains (until the very end.)) Some scenes with the wife and husband have a train-wreck-like queasy awkwardness.

The Christian slant was both palpable (it starts the credits with a bible verse and ends them with "To God be the glory!". Also, the husband nurses the wife back to health with chick-fil-a.) and off-putting (the credits include information on where to purchase the book that saves the marriage.)

That said, it was not heinous and actually has a few well-observed moments. I liked that the atheist fireman is not portrayed as deluded or evil (though he seems incongruously eager to bring up the hereafter.) I also liked that the husband's proselytizing dad is a recent, enthusiastic convert. The happy climax holds its own against any blockbuster. However the film contains nothing really complex or fraught. What if the husband had become smug and arrogant when he inevitably wins the wife back? What if the husband's dad had lost his faith by the ending, requiring the husband to be his own guru? What if, despite everything, his wife still wanted to leave him? If love is surrender and sacrifice, what if it's all in vain? Is it then moral to accept the divorce? (The bit where the husband heroically rejects internet porn (The horror! The horror!) is troubling but is not intended to be.) This lack of anything for me to really bite into is what kills the film for me. It provides only unexamined answers, not questions.