Peter Facinelli stars and co-directs (with Nick Lyon) On fire (now streaming on Peacock), a modestly budgeted dramatic thriller set during an out-of-control wildfire in California. Better known as Dr. Carlisle Cullen in the Twilight Films, Facinelli here plays a family man forced to abandon his home by fire, and… well, there’s not much else to this film beyond a question of survival and whether you can avoid the clichés that border this type of narrative. like bear traps. (Narrator’s voice: He can’t.)
ON FIRE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The essence: The Boy Has Wheels: Clay Laughlin (Asher Angel) fires up the jets and speeds across the finish line, winning his cross-country race. “I’m thinking about a scholarship,” his coach murmurs, which pleases Clay’s father, Dave (Facinelli). They get in the truck and head home and Clay expresses concern about the plume of smoke beyond, but Dave says he’ll never jump over the ridge and threaten them. He sounds like famous last words. HUMMMM the ominous music plays while a subtitle marks the time of the scene: 3:37 p.m.
The Laughlins are a miserable family that barely manages to survive in a prefabricated house located in a peaceful wooded place. At least for now, placid. Relatively quiet for now, i.e. nothing is burning yet, but Dave’s frail, elderly father (Lance Henriksen) will soon wake up and yell mean things at his daughter-in-law Sarah (Fiona Dourif). because she tries to get him to use her oxygen tank for her sick lungs. And that really burns his stomach. She is eight months pregnant and works on her feet all day to pay the old man’s medical bills, and this is the gratitude she receives from her. On top of that, her car needs repairs and Dave says he’ll take care of it, but we have a feeling he’s heard that before.
Another fatal DUMMMMM: 4:24 PM You know that fire? The one Dave said wouldn’t spread? Well, it’s spreading. Did I mention that we’ve been intercut with the daily domestic struggle of the Laughlins and a 911 operator named Kayla (Ashli Foushee)? Well, Kayla is starting to get more and more calls as more and more fire alerts appear on her monitor. More on her later. While Dave buys supplies on hardware he can’t afford, the phones explode with alerts: it’s time to evacuate. OMMMMM: 7:35 pm
Dave is trapped behind a roadblock, on the other side of which and a stretch ahead are his pregnant wife, elderly father, and teenage son. (What, couldn’t they throw in a three-legged blind dog, too?) There’s also a ton of fire on the other side of that roadblock, and he speeds through the barrier and through the blinding smoke because there’s no way He’s going to leave his family out there and No end up running away from fireballs in slow motion, or be there to help his wife in case she goes into labor (I can’t confirm or deny; NO SPOILERS, you know), or witness his son go into labor. put his scholarship-worthy running skills to use. work running for help through the burning forest, or being there the moment they forge a meaningful emotional connection with the 911 operator. No, damn it. Shape.
What movies will it remind you of?: For a more compelling depiction of 21st century wildfires, I recommend Angelina Jolie’s action thriller. Those who wish me dead.
Performance worth seeing: There’s not much beyond gentle seriousness here, but Dourif (daughter of the incomparable Brad Dourif) finds some valid emotional traction in a few scenes, and Henriksen is an old pro who convincingly plays an old man who finds himself in a dark due to his deteriorating health.
Memorable dialogue: The Laughlins find an oasis in the midst of their escape from the flames, and it has an old rotary phone: “Hey, I’ve heard of these,” Clay jokes.
Sex and skin: None.
Our opinion: On fire has some real made-for-TV energy: lame CGI, lots of stock footage of forest fires, a shallow story, and characters with a level of non-specificity that theoretically allows us to project our own experiences onto them; You already know how, Hi, I’m a dad and I would do anything to help my family.either Hey, I’m a 911 operator and the work is hard.either Hey, I’m a woman who has been pregnant and if you thought childbirth was difficult, wait until it happens in the woods during a forest fire.either Hey, I can run fast and I would run EXTRA fast to save my parents., Things like that. This is what mediocre movies do: they make us do the work of giving these people personality. They also generate narrative suspense in the most basic of basic moral concerns, in this case, Wow, I hope the characters that are alive don’t end up not being alive in the end..
AND On fire It’s pretty mediocre. The obvious budget constraints are easily forgiven when the heart of a film is in the right place, and it surely is; About two-thirds of the way through, I predicted it would end up being a tribute to first responders, and sure enough, there was that exact sentiment on a title card, right before the credits rolled. He talks a bit about climate change and offers a moment or two of prayer for the Trinity Broadcast Network crowd, so it’s nice, theoretically! – the two political demographics that will dominate the United States in 2024.
But just because a movie has good intentions doesn’t mean it’s original or unpredictable. This one isn’t fake, but it’s definitely cliché and can be seen in the sense that it drives round pegs into round holes; For those of us who like to eat the same thing for breakfast every morning, it’s vaguely satisfying to watch the drama unfold in a totally predictable way. Many things can be true at once, including the claim that On fire It’s neither particularly good nor particularly bad, and if you don’t like that indecisive assessment, feel free to set fire to the fence I’m sitting on; Anyway, it wasn’t very comfortable.
Our call: Is giving On fire Is a Just Fine-less review a recommendation? Eh, not really. Just SKIP IT.
John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic living in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
