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There are not a lot of surprises to “Ladder 49” but it is a good, old-fashioned humanist/action movie that focuses on the true heroes of the community. Trapped, injured and dazed he flashes back to his first days as a rookie firefighter assigned to “Ladder 49.” They get two out and Jack is saving the third when disaster strikes and the floor caves in beneath him.
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It’s just another day in the lives of the firefighters of Engine House 33 as Jack Morrison (Joachim Phoenix) and his comrades rush into the upper floors of a blazing 20 story building to save three trapped people. Russell's use of a fire truck to juxtapose two of life's most momentous events is an effective piece of filmmaking almost lost in the ceremony. "Ladder 49" ends on an unexpected note, but its over reliance on images too freshly familiar and frequent from September of 2001 disconnect the viewer from its more everyday heroism.
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Early scoring (William Ross, "Tuck Everlasting") has underlying harpsichord, giving it a effective retro 60's feel, but quickly falls into the cliche of Irish tinwhistle. Art direction and set decorators nail the firehouse environs as well as the abodes of its working class. Production design celebrates the blue collar neighborhoods of Baltimore. A bonding moment with Lenny is a well earned one. Patrick's Lenny has the right level of humor and camaraderie to portray one of Engine 33's two hazing roles, but he invests the character with the slightest trace of nastiness, giving him a lone wolf quality that instead of repelling the others, make them want to draw him in. Of the entire cast, which also includes Kevin Chapman ("Mystic River"), Morris Chestnut ("Breakin' All the Rules"), Balthazar Getty ("Deuces Wild") and Jay Hernandez ("Torque"), only Robert Patrick ("Terminator 2") presents a character, Lenny Richter, who has any real depth and human shading.
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Travolta projects the right kind of charismatic leadership but fails to disappear into the role, lending some of his scenes a stilted edge. The episodic nature of the script doesn't allow any of the actors to really achieve any kind of arc. Phoenix isn't bad in the role of Jack, proffering a quiet, regular kind of guy, but he never gets us to care about him enough either. In more intimate scenes, few of the firefighters stand out from the crowd and Jack and Linda lack chemistry. Yet Russell undercuts a climatic rescue by placing two assisting firemen behind an office window Jack's just valiantly broken through on his own. The later saving of a young girl on Christmas Eve gets to the heart of the holiday and the loss of a young fireman in an abandoned, condemned building weighs more heavily for the senselessness of his sacrifice. Jack's first fire leading the charge with the hose is interrupted by a stream of rats fleeing the building's upper floors and the insidious nature of fire is well realized. Linda Morrison (Jacinda Barrett, "The Human stain") bonds with the boys at their Irish bar then settles down with cliched wifely worries about the danger of Jack's job. Jack's career highs and lows are interspersed with him shyly meeting his wife, getting married and having kids whom his entire coterie fetes at backyard birthday parties. Writer Lewis Colick ("Domestic Disturbance") uses Jack's suspenseful rescue attempt as a girder from which to string flashbacks of Jack's career from his first day as an Engine 33 rookie back up to his current predicament, but except for some humorous firehouse mischief and a few well done blaze battles these scenes play out like the Kodak moments in the life of a fireman. Severely injured, Jack maintains radio communication with his old friend, Chief Kennedy, who is coordinating his rescue outside. Jack finds the second man and persuades him to lower himself on a rope to a waiting rescue bucket poised outside, but an explosion sends Jack plummeting several floors to an unknown location. Director Jay Russell ("Tuck Everlasting") elicits mostly pedestrian performances from his ensemble cast and taints good action scenes with overt dramatic rigging.Īn old industrial building is ablaze and several firefighters are inside, trying to locate two men who are not accounted for. This post-9/11 paean to those who risk their lives is obviously heart felt, but its ponderously by-the-numbers execution results in a film that is emotionally unengaging.