Delayed Reaction: Ladder 49

What I Guessed It Was About: This is the story of a fire department in New York (because it's always New York). Two brothers (because they're always brothers) are in the 49th precinct (or whatever they call them. Stations, maybe?) and are proud of their works. They have families, or at least one guy has a family. If they all have families, then one guy has a pregnant girlfriend. Regardless, that guy dies at the end. The movie ends with a funeral and I'm supposed to be crying. That's all I'm going to assume. Anything more, and I'll turn this even more into Backdraft than I already have.(As it turns out, I was assuming this was exactly the same as Backdraft although not entirely off base)

How I Came Into It: I remember hearing when it first came out that "the one guy dies" which I could've told you going in blind (who "the one guy" is being the only variable). It is no surprise that this movie comes out three years after 9/11: the day that firefighters became gods. Given that context, there's not a lot to expect out of this.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) I like Joaquin Phoenix, even when he wasn't so concerned with being an oddball and I miss the days when John Travolta's brand appeal gets him put on a poster for a movie despite having a very supporting role. The familiar structure of following Phoenix's whole career (a la American Sniper more recently) worked better than a snapshot view of a short period, at least for the effect the movie was hoping to have.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: I don't necessarily have a problem with a movie manipulating my emotions (In fact, I loved About Time for it), but it has to be done really well for me to embrace the emotion and ignore the manipulation. This felt very familiar, like it was pitched as a movie to cash in on people's love for firefighters after 9/11 without directly referencing 9/11*. More importantly, I have issue with the wedding scene in the middle of the movie. You see, it uses a song that is used in Gilmore Girls all the time. The one that goes "la-la-la" that they use for scenes when no one is talking. I didn't realize this was an actual song and has lyrics. Ladder 49 uses it with said lyrics and I'm so thrown off now. True, this isn't really the movie's fault, but I'm blaming it anyway.

*The studios would wait until 2006's World Trade Center for that.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend