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Cinematographer Claudio Miranda (“The Life of Pi”) and editor Billy Fox (“Straight Outta Compton”) make each conflagration distinct from one another, but they all capture at least the essence of the terror involved in facing such perilous situations in such close quarters.

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It’s worth spotlighting Eric Barba and his visual effects team about the only times I notice bad CG effects is movies these days are when fire or explosions are involved, and for an entire movie about fire and explosions, I never once saw the seams. Jeff Bridges, of course, waltzes off with every moment of his screen time without breaking a sweat.Īlso Read: Miles Teller Blames Club After Public Drunkenness Arrest That He Claims Didn't Happen But almost all of the firemen get their moments to create vivid characters as well, as the film assembles a great team of character actors, including Taylor Kitsch, James Badge Dale, Geoff Stults, and Scott Haze, to name just a few.

There’s an extraordinary ensemble here, led by Brolin and Connelly, whose scenes together positively crackle, and Teller, whose turn is deeply felt but never showy.

These people aren’t cardboard do-gooders they’ve got complicated pasts, and they’re haunted by regrets, and they have wants and needs and real dimension. Once “Only the Brave” takes a turn that makes its characters more vivid, it becomes clear that that the genuine life-and-death stakes of a firefighter’s life will intrude upon the story what starts out as old-fashioned and rah-rah becomes, by the final scenes, genuinely devastating and intensely poignant. And while Brendan follows the familiar plot thread of the callow youth becoming a man, he faces conflict once he realizes that being a firefighter is turning him into the kind of absentee dad he swore he’d never become. Amanda, for instance, is no shrinking violet or blandly supportive wife she constantly challenges her husband, all in the name of keeping their relationship alive over issues he would frequently rather not discuss.

In an era where the words “based on a true story” can give seasoned filmgoers a sinking feeling, however, this is a film where the complications and messiness of reality add genuine heft to the drama. Even in these politically divided times, red and blue audiences alike can agree to root for the first responders and against the flames. See Photo: 'Deadpool 2': Ryan Reynolds Shares First Look at Josh Brolin as CableĪnd given that this is a men-who-are-good-at-their-jobs movie, with the firefighters showing their exemplary abilities before and after they achieve “hot shot” status, and a film where the fires themselves seem both vivid and deadly, “Only the Brave” could easily have coasted on bravado. But as the story builds, these characters become richer and more complicated - and the stakes become more deadly - resulting in a movie with a delayed but no less potent dramatic punch.ĭirector Joseph Kosinski (“Tron: Legacy,” “Oblivion”) and writers Ken Nolan (“Black Hawk Down”) and Eric Warren Singer (“American Hustle”) set up characters we think we know, from Eric Marsh (Josh Brolin), the tough-but-fair superintendent who always seems to know more about fires than everyone around him to Amanda (Jennifer Connelly), Eric’s veterinarian wife who rescues horses and frets about her husband’s safety while he’s putting himself in harm’s way to Brendan (Miles Teller), a drug-using screw-up who tries to get his life together when a recent fling results in his becoming a dad. And sometimes, movies like “Only the Brave” also find ways to stray from the path we’re expecting them to take.īased on Sean Flynn’s GQ article about the first municipal fire department to become an elite “hot-shot” squad sent in to extinguish huge and deadly forest fires, this film starts out so safely square (and square-jawed), that it feels like a World War II movie about a colorful squadron heading to Normandy. Wind, humidity and any number of other factors can transform a forest fire in unpredictable ways.

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