Watching Ladder 49 is a lot like what living life as a firefighter must be like – long monotonous episodes punctuated with moments of heightened action and intensity.

We watch Jack Morrison (Joaquin Phoenix) as he first joins the fire squad, meets his wife, gets married, has his first kid, his kid’s birthday and on and on. We also see, of course, the more dangerous moments of fire fighting and the stress that that puts on his worried wife. There is no real point to any of it except to establish what is likely the life of a brave firefighter. Simply put, the whole thing is really just a glorification of Joe Firefighter. Which is, of course, OK, because firefighters deserve the praise.

On the other hand, if the exact same film were made about a man at war, it would have brought a serious groan. Ladder 49 seems to get away with it because the firefighter genre is still fairly fresh. The primary problem is that, even though Ladder 49 is not based on any true story that I am aware of, it still plays out like a biopic.

It’s not nearly as bad as it could have been though. For a biopic-like film, it’s fairly engaging. Fire scenes, though not as frequent as you might expect, are well filmed and appropriately intense. The life and times of Jack Morrison, though fairly dry at times, is lifted through some surprisingly affecting scenes – both happy and sad.

If there’s anything to Ladder 49 beyond an appreciation for the life of a fireman, it’s a boldfaced attempt at bringing real courage back onto the screen. The firefighters’ actions are realistically portrayed while managing to be categorically uplifting all the while. Ladder 49’s blaze is oft a tedious trip, but its positive twists turn out worth the trouble.

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