By Fred Topel | Image property of Samuel Goldwyn Films
Ever catch a rerun of Growing Pains and wonder what Kirk Cameron's up to today? Maybe you watch his religious shows so you already know. Either way, he has a movie opening this week. In Fireproof he plays a firefighter whose greatest fight is to save his own marriage. So you see, the fire is a metaphor.
Kirk Cameron is Fireproof
"In the movie the word fireproof is used a couple of times from one firefighter to another specifically talking about marriage," said Cameron. "What he says is, 'When something is fireproof it doesn’t mean that fire is never going to come to it. It is that when fire comes you are going to be able to withstand the heat and that is the idea behind fireproof and the marriage analogy. It is not about whether or not flames are going to come to your marriage. It is about when they come can you stand the heat are you going to be able to with stand it and out last it. Unfortunately many people today, most people today don’t and firefighters actually have a divorce rate of around 75 percent so it is really high but relevant for everybody."
In a Hollywood where many romances are either about humorously manipulating people or lavishly falling in unbelievable love, it's hard to tell an honest story about real marital strife. "Most love stories in movies are kind of about this unlikely person meets that unlikely person and there is chemistry and fireworks and it is the story of the obstacles until they finally get together and that’s your crescendo. This movie starts 10 years after the honeymoon is over and what do you do when there is no fire left? There is no heat, there is no spark, there is no love, it is more characterized by anger and bitterness and wrath. All of those things you don’t want, maybe the same things you see in your parents marriage or in your friends’ marriages and you go, 'I don’t want that.' Well, what then? Do you bail and look for a new husband or a new wife? Do you determine that marriage isn’t at all what it is cracked up to be? Or you can turn around and say, 'Wait a minute. Maybe I’ve got the whole wrong idea about what this marriage thing is. Do I really understand what love is? Can a couple who seems to have lost it get it back again? Fire it back up to the point where they would still say "I do’ all over again.”' I find the movie very, very inspirational."
Fireproof
The marriage therapy in this movie is based on a program outlined by a real life book called The Love Dare. "He’s about to get a divorce when his dad steps in and says, 'I want you to put it off for 40 days. I am going to send you something.' So he sends him something in the mail this hand written book called The Love Dare and it is a 40 day challenge to see if he really understands what love is in its purest sense and then challenges him to see if he can demonstrate it for 40 days even in the face of her constant rejection and ignoring of him and his efforts. I don’t want to give away the whole ending, but this Love Dare book is ultimately what turns the relationship around."
Cameron has focused on faith-based work, which has often been ridiculed by the rest of the industry, until recently. "They did until The Passion of the Christ. They kind of burst out of the box office and into the bank and everyone is trying to ride that financial wave and virtually every movie making company has got a faith based division. So we all want to get in on this business so there is going to be a lot of cheesy stuff that we are going to see in this genre and then there are going to be some gems that really shine. I think the ones that are authentic the ones that are not just trying to have a poorly written script that just disguises some sermon halfway through the story, but stories that really incorporate positive or faith based messages right into the plot, which is what this one does. If you took the inspirational, faith based message out of this movie you would totally change the plot line. It is about a guy who needs to find something that he doesn’t have in himself to be able to love his wife. If you’ve been through a divorce or something there comes a point where you go, 'I can’t do this. Everything in me says this is over and I can’t do this.' He finds something outside of himself by trusting in God and believing that marriage is God’s idea and he just doesn’t understand it and that’s what gives him the motivation and the drive to stick with it and see it through to the end of the 40 days."
Fireproof
Add to Heffee!
