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In a weak display of screenwriting construction, Ladder 49 begins in the third act where Jack Morrison (Joaquin Phoenix) becomes trapped in a high-scale blaze and briefly knocked unconscious. This gives him the opportunity to go back and remember where the film should have begun at his initiation to the close-knit Baltimore firehouse that welcomes him, but not before a bit of “Probee” ribbing. When you work a one-day-on and two-days-off schedule, you have to fill your day somehow in-between the meals, pool-playing and the occasional fire.

John Travolta sleepwalks as the firehouse Chief who acts as a father figure to the anonymous characters who scurry in-and-out of the movie. Don’t get too attached to those firemen who actually share dialogue with Joaquin cause they are likely to come face-to-face with the flames in some form or another. Ladder 49 wants to show us a life along with “the life” of a fireman, so we follow Jack’s progression from rookie to…come to think of it there isn’t much development aside from a surprisingly engaging performance by Phoenix. (Probably because his character’s been given one-and-a-quarter dimensions.) He’s an amiable guy, meets a charming gal (Jacinda Barrett), and has a couple kids. Not bad for a hero.

You’ll find this semi-progression stunted every 20 minutes as we flip-flop between Jack’s past and his grim present, splicing a needful connection to the dread he faces. Revealing a character’s fate in the opening scene is bad enough of a device, but manufacturing a formation as ubiquitous as Godfather II takes us right out of the moment. Just as we settle into one timeline, we’re woken up by the other.

Ron Howard’s Backdraft, beyond what many felt of a rather conventional script, was criticized for putting way too much fuel on the fire. “No fireman would ever go on the roof during a chemical fire,” I remember hearing back in 1991 and granted, Howard was left with the tough task of adding humanity to a groundbreaking exercise in pyrotechnics. Donald Sutherland’s Hannibal Lecter-like fire expert remains as laughable today and it makes no apologies for driving home Hans Zimmer’s brilliant score during its overtly tearjerking finale.

Now here we are in 2004, three years and a month removed from 9/11 which put an inexorable and justifiably warranted stamp on the valor of these men. They were heroes. This is a movie. It may want to play up the everyday characteristics of their lives, but it gets caught in a rundown that devalues its intentions. The firefighting scenes aren’t nearly up to the exciting standards of Backdraft, intentionally playing down their outrageousness and thusly downsizing their peril. But then Jack’s predicament is played like an action sequence with rescue attempts and quick escapes. It also finds a fireman caught off guard on a rooftop and an overly sappy ending. So our world may have changed, but the movies sure as hell haven’t.

Lewis Colick’s screenplay has no trouble in mapping its way towards the most obvious of firefighting clichés. The wife concerned about her husband’s well-being, despite knowing what she was getting into when she married him. Firemen spending 90% of their off-hours in the bar together. Apparently it’s a requirement that all movie firemen must be Irish or display Irish-like tendencies. “Why do we run into a burning building while everyone else is running out?” is used twice and is the same as asking “Why do I go see crappy movies like Ladder 49?” Because it’s my friggin' JOB!!!

The drama is content with being just that - content. It serves as a glue stick to get back to the unspectacular fires (either presently or historically) which apparently isn’t enough drama for the frathouse with cool trucks. When things amongst the professional family are getting too loosey-goosey, along comes Robert Patrick to do or say something mildly annoying to raise someone’s ire. He might as well have spilled his nightcap and drop a match since conflict has rarely felt as artificial as it does here.

Ladder 49 saves it’s Grande La Tear for the final moments and has no shame in belting you in the ribs twice to get its waterworks. Storytelling-wise, one of them is already cheapened by shooting for those ducts twice before. The other is a final montage, full of the menial jobs and sacrifices firemen are put through. Backdraft had the sense to put this in the middle of its story rather than brazenly conditioning us as we exit. They gave us Bruce Hornsby, Ladder 49 gives us a Robbie Robertson song that may as well have been the other Bruce (Springsteen) and his “My City of Ruins” anthem from the 9/11 tribute album, The Rising. There’s a lot more to being a firefighter than just a hero. And there’s a lot more to being a hero than a movie like Ladder 49 even knows.

link directly to this review at http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=10960&reviewer=198
originally posted: 10/01/04 14:03:01
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