Ladder 49 sizzles

It's hard to buy Joaquin Phoenix as a bon a fide action hero in Ladder 49. He's a tad on the pudgy side, and he talks with an unaffected flustered drawl that makes him sound just a bit dim-witted. He's got a coarse face, handsome but not striking. He's common, familiar. Ordinary.

Yet, it is precisely this dull facileness, this run of the mill normalcy that makes Phoenix's gutsy daring as Baltimore fireman Jack Morrison all the more courageous.

Really, the film is as invested in the culture of fire fighting as it is in the men who choose this life of everyday bravery, men who might drink a little too much, or fight with their wives a bit too often, but who nevertheless put everything aside when that bell above the firehouse begins to clang. Not all of them are going to make it back every time, and they know it, but they go anyway, because fighting fires is their calling. It's all they've ever done, and they love it more than anything.

For all its cloyingly ardent hero-worship, the movie doesn't shy away from the fear that those licking flames and broiling heat can strike in the heart of even the most experienced fireman. Yes, the men in Ladder 49 are brave and selfless, but they're still human enough to be scared out of their minds every once in a while. In short, they are men first, heroes second. Ladder 49 aims to depict and honor both these aspects of firemen.

Trapped in a burning warehouse after rescuing a civilian, Morrison tries to crawl his way to safety. His only line to the outside world is the walkie-talkie he uses to communicate with his mentor and fire chief Mike Kennedy (John Travolta), who is overseeing the fire fighting operation from the ground outside the warehouse. As his firemen brothers-in-arms fight to reach him through mounds of burning debris, Morrison has flash backs of the past ten years of his life, from his first day as a probation fire fighter, to his first fire, to the death of his friend and fellow firefighter, to the first time he met the woman who would become his wife. And with each passing memory, the time that Jack has to escape slowly dwindles away.

The movie is as much about the mettle of the firemen themselves as it is about the quieter but no less sturdy bravery of their spouses. Morrison's wife (a powerful Jacinda Barrett) isn't happy with her husband's line of work—especially when his beyond-the-call-of-duty attitude threatens to force his children to grow up without a father—but she supports him because he likes to save people, and she's proud of that.

Phoenix turns in a restrained but sturdy performance, believable as both a rookie and veteran fireman. Travolta is equally affecting as the patriarchal Kennedy, and resists the temptation of overplaying a role that could have easily come across as melodramatic and predictable.

The film's pyrotechnics—practically a character in and of itself—are excellently chaotic. Each new fire has a different texture to it, a singular sort of probing menace with which to taunt Morrison and his fellow firefighters.

Though it's really nothing more than an elaborate tribute to firemen, Ladder 49 is emotionally affecting, mainly because we can see so much of ourselves in Morrison. When he's trapped in a burning building, Morrison doesn't think about how heroic his life has been; he thinks about the first time he kissed his wife, and about the birth of his first child. There's a lot of happiness in these memories, but some real tragedy too. And when you risk your life for a living, there's no telling which will win out in the end.