Ladder 49 (PG)
Opens October 28
Running Time: 105 min

Cast: John Travolta, Joaquin Phoenix, Jacinda Barrett
Director: Jay Russell

Saved from a fiery demise

By Kenneth Chiu • UrbanWire
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I wanna be a fire fighter when I grow up, already. You meet great friends who become your bosom buddies, spend lots of time hanging out with them at the local joint over a half-pint or in the firehouse, meet and date hot chicks, save lives, be a hero and basically live it up. Only ever so rarely, s**t happens and someone gets hurt or dies, but hey, it's for the greater good, ain't it? Saving lives! And after that, you get a grand burial with a rifle salute and you are mourned by one and all, well, as a hero.

Ladder 49 blazes off to a start with the fire fighters of Engine House 33 storming to the 12th floor of a scorching refinery in search of trapped civilians. Jack Morrison (Joaquin Phoenix) braves the raging flames and resumes the search for the final person as his other 2 colleagues leave him to evacuate the 2 civilians they had successfully located. Calamity strikes as the ground crumbles under his feet and Jack plunges several levels. He's trapped, disoriented and severely injured. Lying hapless, his memory is jogged back to when he first joined the force.

We're introduced to the Jack as he turns up for work for the first time as a "probie" (newbie fire fighter) at the Baltimore City Fire Department. The movie then takes a break from the gung-ho and the razing inferno-induced annihilation as some lighter moments roll in. Jack Morrison makes his way to the Captain's (John Travolta) office, where he finds the latter asleep, read: slacking on the job. The Captain then proceeds to give Jack a pep-talk on what is expected of him as a member of the team, such irony. Jack is told that the priest would be dropping by for their confessions. A staunch Catholic, Jack is puzzled when the man of God begins probing him with taunts and some very personal questions. Only then, does he realise he'd just been Punk'd, Ashton Kutcher-style and "initiated" into the team.

The movie relies heavily on flash-backs to tell its story, constantly shuttling to and fro between the past and the bleak present. Like a dying man with his life flashing before his eyes, we're taken to the Hallmark moments: When he meets his wife-to-be, played by Jacinda Barrett, his marriage, the birth of his kids, the death of his buddy and the incidents of danger that his job places him in. The flash-backs make a slight impression of who Jack is, how he's like and how perfect his existence is, but does not establish any affinity between him and the audience. This leaves us feeling really detached, like we don't really know the guy at all, so we don't really care.

We don't know the buddies he has at the fire station either, nor his mentor and captain, Mike Kennedy. They seem to be around just to make up the fabric of the all-too-perfect backdrop, the tarpaulin that props the rest of this ailing hero-panegyric show up. This is a pity as the rest of the cast don't get the slightest of opportunities to actualise their potential; they deliver quite promising displays of their superfluous, under-developed roles.

Even John Travolta, the big name crowd-puller of the show, is relegated to a bit-player though he plays Captain to Joaquin Phoenix's character. Joaquin is bashful and slow, it might have been in the script, but it sure doesn't gel with the hero tag. The oh-so-loving way he looks at his partner Barrett, is scary. Really. With the slightly deranged look in his eyes, he looks as if he'd pounce on her any moment and… Otherwise, Phoenix is far too chastened, dim and bumbling to lift the show or be the hero he is in the film. I must however qualify that if and only if it was so scripted, then Joaquin plays the bit of heroic loser, to perfection.

The film nonetheless, does not go up in flames. It offers us a rather realistic insight into the dangers faced by our hose-wielding brothers in boots. The controlled fires are also a spectacle to be marvelled at and should make pyromaniacs very happy. Not the most entertaining, but the tarpaulin catches Ladder 49 in time.

Rating: 3/5