Fireproof

Last night, the Queen and I sat down to another movie (we like to watch movies at almost one a day recently), and this one was called Fireproof. I'd seen it in Blockbuster the day before we picked it up, and noticed the tag line was "Never leave your partner behind" with some firefighters on it, but the O's in fireproof looked like wedding rings, so I suspected partner had something to do with marriage.

I was right.

This was a very wholesome film with some occasionally clunky, training video-ish dialogue at times (that was what we finally decided it sounded like), but it was very good on the whole. It dealt with a firefighter and his wife who are having marital problems, and neither is willing to admit that they could possibly be the problem in the relationship. It hit some very hard issues that couples deal with in their married lives, and presented solutions to the big issue of how to love someone. How to *really* love someone.

The guy had talked to his father, and dear old dad made him promise to take a dare and wait 40 days before giving in to the looming divorce. The guy agreed, and dad sent him a diaryish book that gave him a daily challenge on how to show his wife that he did love her and that he wanted to give their relationship a chance. The problem was that she was as done with him and he was with her to begin with, and all of his half-hearted attempts to show her affection were ignored by her in favor of the doctor at work who was showing her some attention that she should have been getting from her husband. No, not sexual. It wasn't that kind of movie.

The way it all played out between them was very cool, and worked very, very well within its framework. It was one of those films that when it did work, it gave you that warm, fuzzy feeling, and made me really appreciate the relationship I have with The Queen. We know marriage is not always a walk in the park. You have two very different people trying to create a harmonious life together, and there are often more differences than similarities in decisions, opinions, and background that feel unresolvable without something being lost in the translation. But in everything, there's always that level of compromise that assimilates both sides of the situation and preserves the relationship. 

The movie demonstrates a classic case of a marriage gone wrong, and it boils down to where most marital problems seem to stem from (from what I've heard): selfishness which is little more than pride. Each party is looking out for themselves, but only by investing a part of yourself in the other person can any relationship survive.

If you're married, then this movie will likely touch some kind of nerve with you, whether good or bad based on current events in your life or situations you have already weathered. Our marriage has not always been a cakewalk or all wine and roses, but through every situation, we'd always pulled through and come out stronger in the end, so we're about as strong a couple as you'll ever see. I admit that we disagree sometimes, but hey, that's life. We deal with it, and move on.

That's love.