Movie Review: Only the Brave

Only the Brave *** ½ / *****

Directed by: Joseph Kosinski.

Written by: Ken Nolan and Eric Warren Singer based on the article by Sean Flynn.

Starring: Josh Brolin (Eric Marsh), Miles Teller (Brendan McDonough), Jeff Bridges (Duane Steinbrink), Jennifer Connelly (Amanda Marsh), James Badge Dale (Jesse Steed), Taylor Kitsch (Christopher MacKenzie), Andie MacDowell (Marvel Steinbrink).

 

Perhaps the most refreshing thing about Only the Brave is that it wasn’t directed by Peter Berg, and doesn’t star Mark Wahlberg. That director/actor pair has made a small cottage industry taking on true life disasters in films like Lone Survivor, Deepwater Horizon and Patriots Day. None of those films is terrible – I don’t much like Lone Survivor’s fetishization of violence and suffering, but all are fairly well made, and at their best exciting (I seem to like Patriots Day more than most for instance). Yet, even if I have a grudging like of those films, they are all rather heavy handed and punishing to watch. Only the Brave tackles the type of true life incident that Berg/Wahlberg would love – the story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, who suffered a massive, and tragic loss fighting a wildfire in 2013. The film, director by Joseph Kosinski, has a lighter touch than Berg has managed so far – and doesn’t feel quite so exploitive. This means when the eventual, tragic ending does come, it hits all the harder.

 

The film takes it time, and gradually builds up its characters for more than a year before the tragic fire in 2013. It opens with the crew, led by Eric Marsh (Josh Brolin), is trying very hard to get certified as actual hotshots – until then, they have to be “Deucers” – secondary firefighters, who don’t get to go into the heart of the action fighting wildfires – and since they are located in Arizona, there are a lot of them. The movie focuses mainly on Marsh, his struggle to get the crew tested and certified, and his marriage to Amanda (Jennifer Connelly) – who refreshingly does a lot more than sit by the phone and wait for her man to come home (another way you know this isn’t a Berg/Wahlberg film) – and on Brendan McDonough, played by Miles Teller. When we first meet him, McDonough is a screw-up – he drinks, he does drugs, he gets arrested, and even his mother has had enough of him and throws him out of her house. But then he finds out that his ex-girlfriend is pregnant – and determined not to become the absentee father he had, he gets his life back on track – which includes his improbably hiring by Marsh – a move no one else on the crew agrees with, but he does anyway.

 

The first act of Only the Brave is a little awkward, as it has to spend quite a lot of time setting everything up – the situation, the town, what Hotshots actually do, and the many (many) characters in the film. It gets better as it moves along, and settles into a routine – as we see the Hotshots (spoiler alert – they do eventually get certified) go to one fire after another, become local heroes, and make a name for themselves. Kosinski – whose previous films were the Tom Cruise sci-fi film Oblivion and Tron: Legacy, is good at using special effects, and thankfully, doesn’t overdo them here – the fire feel genuine, and the sense of danger in them is real. The film also has effective performances all the way through – Brolin is appropriately square jawed and upright at first, but gradually reveals a little bit more of himself – his best scenes are with Connelly, who as previously mentioned is very good as a more complete and complex wife character than these films usually allow. Teller is fine, but I always prefer him a little bit more of an asshole then he is here (I wonder why). Jeff Bridges is on hand to do his Jeff Bridges thing – which he does quite well. Most of the other hotshots start to blend together – although James Badge Dale and Taylor Kitsch stand out somewhat – if for no other reason than because they have more screen time than the others.

 

Only the Brave is the kind of old fashioned, male weepie that doesn’t get made much anymore – and when they are, they have the masculinity pumped up to 11 like those Berg/Wahlberg films. Yes, it’s a little square, and plays everything straight up the middle. But it’s effective and engrossingly, and ultimately, yes, it is a tearjerker. But it earns those tears, so you won’t feel silly the next day for crying.