Fireproof

This weekend, we watched Fireproof starring Kirk Cameron. Yes, that Kirk Cameron. The show was recommended to us by a few different people independently, so we decided to give it a spin.

It's as formulaic as a bad episode of Diff'rent Strokes. And its production value rivals that of, say, a mid-'70s seminary filmstrip. (You know the evangelicals have fierce Motion Picture Studio envy!)

But buried in the slag heap of overdramitization and didacticism were a few nuggets. Particularly effective was a sequence in which the husband (Cameron's character) throws out the PC and replaces it with a dozen roses and a note reading, "Because I love you more," only to find, on the kitchen table the next day, an envelope bearing his name and containing the divorce papers. His collapse at the collision point of facing the real prospect of getting what he thought he'd wanted (divorce) but realizing that he really didn't want it, while recognizing the failed fruits of his too-little-too-late efforts, reflects a mental and emotional maelstrom that is not unfamiliar to me.