In one amusing running gag, Caleb repeatedly, and embarrassingly, vents his frustrations outside the house where his neighbor can see him. Phil-isms that come up in the dialogue every now and then, and they get some amusing mileage out of the various scenes in which Caleb and Catherine commiserate with their respective buddies. The Kendricks are not above poking fun at the Dr. Once the set-up is out of the way, however, the film settles into a nice mix of moral lessons and crowd-pleasing comic relief, sometimes in the very same scene. Put simply, it no longer feels like the filmmakers are 'cheating.' But the Kendricks earn their resolution this time instead of dropping miracles and messages from God on their characters, they keep the story focused on the Holts and driven by the choices that the Holts make. Since Fireproof has been endorsed by a plethora of marriage ministries, you can pretty much guess how things will turn out. Caleb is ready to give up on the marriage altogether, but his father, John (Harris Malcom), gives him a book called The Love Dare and challenges him to follow its steps before throwing in the towel. The story this time concerns a firefighter named Caleb Holt ( Kirk Cameron) whose wife of seven years, Catherine (Erin Bethea), wants a divorce. Thankfully, their newest film, Fireproof, is indeed a step up, though it presents new challenges that the Kendricks' earlier films never quite had to deal with. Seen in that context, the Kendricks' film was remarkably impressive, and instead of slamming it, I wanted to encourage their artistic growth. But I have acted in church drama groups, and in at least one video sponsored by my denomination at that time, and I have a sense of how hard it can be to get even mediocre work out of a mostly-volunteer, non-professional cast and crew. Yes, the script, by director Alex Kendrick and his brother Stephen-both of whom are pastors at Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia-had a tendency to pile on the happy endings, to make rededicating one's life to Jesus look like the magic trick that would solve all of life's problems.

Personally, I came down somewhere in the middle of that debate.

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