Fireproof

The book was good, the movie wasn't bad.

The book was loaned to me from a friend at church who has struggled with his second marriage and is trying hard not to mess it up, and his relationship has been very up and down as long as I've known him. It's hard enough to keep a marriage alive when both people are working professionals, but when one is a seasonal worker and doesn't have a college degree and is constantly in and out of jobs, the problems are magnified immensely.

Perhaps that is my main complaint with the book. The two people, Caleb and Catherine Holt, are both professionals working in jobs that they love, and their problems stem from simple selfishness. Other than the wife's invalid mother, there is little else to intrude upon their perfect little world other than what they are willing to allow.

But since the book was taken from the screenplay and not the other way around, it makes sense that it deals with a simplified life, because a movie which included all the myriad distractions of a 'normal' life would be several hours long.

In the earlier years of our marriage, we were surrounded by other young married people without children, for whom this story might have particular appeal. In those marriages, stress was measured by the arguments over who was going to make dinner that night, or where they were going to vacation that year. Inevitably, with few exceptions, by the time year seven rolled around -- the timeline in the story -- children had appeared, and selfishness had either disappeared, or it had already destroyed the relationship.

At this point in our lives, the issues facing the imaginary Holt family mean very little to us. We don't have thousands of dollars saved up in the bank for a boat (or a new computer); we don't have an invalid mother-in-law needing a wheelchair and a bed; we don't live as two strangers residing in the same house. A very nice house. A house filled with very nice things, as yet untouched by childish hands. A house not covered in cat fur.

It would've been nice to read a story about a family facing the same struggles as our own, with whom we could identify. It would be horribly complicated because there are issues and sub-issues and sub-sub-issues, and moods and emotions and temperaments change by the moment, and nothing is every completely resolved to anyone satisfaction (and compromise is a tool to get through the day, not the Happy Ending we all hope for).

Our own story would involve lots of miscommunication and misunderstanding and missed opportunities to connect and lots of sighing and occasional yelling at the children and many dinnertimes ruined by simmering anger and many nights where it's a major accomplishment to say a civil "Good Night".

But it would also involve many nights of camaraderie and laughing and hugging and playing and praying and sharing and falling asleep with a feeling of comfort and contentment.

Probably too much for a movie, or short book.

But it would be nice to read a story about a family like ours, where the problems are not so simple, where the attention must be shared between spouse and children, where the real struggle is simply to find (or make) time to spend with the people in your own house. Where the idea of having a huge stash of money sitting in the bank is a sought-for dream with little hope of ever happening. Where the computer is hated not as a source of pornography but as a ball and chain linking me to the office. Where the spiritual struggle is not to find Jesus, but to give him as much time as he deserves in the face of all the other extremely important people in your life who need time and attention.

Maybe one day I'll write a book like that.

**

Comments about the movie.

The book's Meet-Cute scene between Caleb and Catherine was missing. I was looking forward to seeing it after reading it in the book. It really helps establish them as a couple-of-destiny so that the imminent loss of their marriage is all the more poignant.

Kirk Cameron still looks way too young, even with lines on his face.

Erin Bethea (Catherine Holt) is way too pretty. I have difficulty caring about the problems of people who look like models. Most people don't look like models. I'd prefer someone who looked more "ordinary", who would be more believable responding favorably to another man complimenting her. And for Kirk Cameron to ignore his very pretty wife in favor of pornography, he would have to be a complete idiot, too stupid to know how to clear his history file.

Kirk knows how to act and say his lines in a believable way. Erin wasn't bad. Most everyone else was evidently still working on memorizing the lines when the camera started rolling, so they didn't really "own" the lines, so they came out a bit stilted and artificial.

That house was way too big for just the two of them. And too clean. And fancy. Can you say, "starter home"?

Killing the computer. Destroying it didn't bother me, but had he even considered the problem of glass shards in the yard? Actually, he didn't need to perform an act of physical violence on it. If anything, that would frighten his wife that he had gone off the deep end and become dangerous. Besides which, these days you can't just put the computer in the trash. It's toxic waste, due to lead in the monitor and other chemicals on the motherboard. Instead, he could've just gotten rid of it by donating it to a charity. The lack of a computer on the table would've been just as obvious to Catherine.

Dr. Keller ("Gavin") just didn't work for me. After reading the book, I had a completely different concept of how he would look. And act. And speak his lines. Plus he looked very, very familiar. I think I've met him somewhere before, or his twin brother. Anyway, he was supposed to be a Cary Grant sweep-em-off-their-feet kind of character, and instead he looked like a high school kid playing dress-up. Or someone's big, goofy older brother. Casting problem.

"Are you ready to accept Jesus in your life?" This was a troubling scene because there wasn't enough motivation or background information or insight into Caleb's thought processes to see how he could suddenly change his mind and believe in Jesus (or God, for that matter) so quickly. But that's been my problem with the whole conversion thing in any movie or book. And sometimes in real life. It's been a part of my life for so long that I can't put myself in the shoes of someone who has never believed. So I can't imagine what the thought process is like, how one decides to suddenly believe in Jesus. Do they really decide that quickly? Does the same instant conversion happen in Judaism and Buddhism and Islam? I find that very difficult to accept.