Starring: Kirk Cameron, Erin Bethea, Ken Bevel, Harris Malcolm, Perry Revell

Recommended age: 12+

Overall PTC Traffic Light Rating: Green

Caleb and Catherine Holt are in a troubled marriage. Over the years their relationship has soured, and now they are on the point of divorce. But when Caleb’s father challenges him to take “The Love Dare,” a course of counseling designed to save his marriage, Caleb is launched on a journey of self-discovery – which brings him closer to his wife, and both of them to faith in Jesus Christ.  

There is no foul language or open sex in Fireproof. Catherine obliquely refers to Caleb’s viewing of pornography with language like, “looking at that stuff on the internet,” and both Catherine’s devastated reaction and Caleb’s struggles with the addiction are portrayed, but no pornography is actually shown. Catherine’s attraction to a co-worker is also shown, but not in explicitly sexual terms.

Caleb is a fire chief, and he and his fire crew are shown in several mild action sequences putting out fires, rescuing accident victims and the like, but nothing explicitly frightening or violent is seen. Caleb takes out his frustrations with his marriage by throwing tantrums, during which he smashes various possessions in his backyard, to which Caleb’s confused neighbor comically reacts. He also mildly threatens Catherine’s flirtatious co-worker, shaking a fist in his face. One scene early in the movie shows Caleb and Catherine loudly yelling at one another, but the argument does not escalate to physical violence. Caleb and his crew play a prank on a boastful co-worker by getting him to drink hot sauce, which he spits out to humorous effect.

Fireproof is vigorous in its advocacy of “covenant marriage” and is frequent and overt in its references to the tenets of evangelical Christianity. The entire theme of Caleb working to save his marriage is explicitly tied to faith in Jesus Christ, and most of the film’s characters express the importance of their Christian faith openly. Caleb and his father share several discussions on God’s standards of morality and the importance of personal salvation.