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In terms of quality, ‘Fire with Fire’ is three-fourths entertaining and an above average teen romance movie, and one-fourth is a complete disaster. My main concern revolves the script as that is where all the problems stem from. Out of four writers, I am unable to fathom how none of them managed to pick up on the fact that this movie’s final act is worse than the Hindenburg disaster.
This plot is not new. A rich girl’s boarding school romance with a boy from a juvenile reform camp – Lisa (Virginia Madsen) and Joe (Craig Sheffer) face struggles in love. Cinema has always made use of controversial issues like a romance between a juvenile delinquent and a catholic schoolgirl. There is a high probability that such a story has been told and will continue to be told. However, it remains true to life which is an added advantage. Us viewers love to root for young love and are pleased to see them overcome hurdles. It is, but not limited to, social constraints, emotional attachments, cultural practices, sexual practices, and especially, in this case, physical boundaries which adds to the romance. The desire to be with the person gets stronger and stronger, and so does the romance.
One factor that differentiates this version of the story from others is the attractiveness of the leads. Sheffer and Madsen have remained fascinating but underused performers over the years. Madsen is great, but Madsen is the real draw of this movie. She depicts brilliance and possesses a superb sense of unassertive glee. She is good looking, as is Sheffer, who is of course very appealing. The film does not hide their beauty especially the monobrow that has not been tweezed from the eyes of Sheffer and the mousy cussed hair of Madsen.
I, however, wish that the film developed better the romantic plot. Surely, there is little interaction between Joe and Lisa before they become madly in love with each other. This notion of love at first sight is a concept I must admit I have some difficulty in fully comprehending. They cross paths while doing other things, but have little to no engagement until Lisa’s school, at her suggestion, organizes a dance for the boys at the reform school. It is my pleasure to report that the writers at least achieved some depth to the first conversation between the two. The viewers get a sense that this encounter is meaningful, that they begin to know each other beyond the surface level. It is followed by a seeming first time for the two of them awkwardly slow dancing which, albeit in a cute way, reveals to me that they are starting to feel a physical connection.
This scene of dancing is way more believable than with most Of all high school dance scenes, this looks much more believable, where the moves seem choreographed even when it isn’t a full dance number, all the girls are gorgeous with their hair and dresses perfectly done, and the male extras look as if they were casted for the sole purpose of being eye candy for the women watching. Here, all the extras are somewhat average looking and the dancing is slightly bit awkward. The girls, with the exception of star dee Madsen, do not look like they had professional hair styling done.
Madsen and Sheffer have many scenes in which they are together and their chemistry is very good. The film’s advertisement have a hint of something more intense, but the movie shows a light hearted version of sexuality. One of the scenes in which Joe breaks into Lisa’s dorm room is arguably one of the sexiest scenes I’ve ever watched as both characters are mostly dressed. In fact, the scene may be even sexier because the characters are not trying to show off.
The movie is helped by a competent supporting cast besides the great appeal of the two leads. The film’s superior mother Kate Reid is subdued, which is appropriate for her underwritten role, but b-movie femme fatale Ann Savage may be recognizable to many as the aged nun marking her return after 30 years. The highest profile among the nuns is Jean Smart, who plays Sister Maria and offers yet another understanding twist to another underwritten role. There are a lot more questions here than answers because I wish Sister Maria had been given more time to consider what was going on in the room.
Tim Russ, David Harris, D.B. Sweeney, and William G. Schilling Hold Firm as Great Supports Among the Guards And The Prisoners. But the best performer of them all is J. J. Cohen (as Jeffrey Jay Cohen) in the role of Joe’s best friend, The Mapmaker. While I think about it now, it seems that Joe having a friend who is interested in drawing maps is just too convenient for the story. But pondering over it a little, I understand that it is not so strange for an 80s nerd to be incarcerated at a juvenile facility with no access to comic books, computers, action figures, or trading cards. Rather, it is completely reasonable for such a person to gravitate towards an obscure hobby like cartography.
The only supporting character that isn’t gotten very well is Jon Polito, who plays the camp director who is primarily Joe’s antagonist. It is not his fault since his character os a poorly conceived version of Strother Martin’s character in Cool Hand Luke. At certain points, I expected Polito to take Joe aside and talk about how they, as a collective, failed to communicate.
And this is when the movie starts to tumble into implausibility. There is a great car chase, a house burns down, a helicopter chase, a Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid type jump off a cliff. The climax portion of the movie consists of a ridiculous final escape. The reason why the action movie switches jacets so quickly is because the writers of the movie did not know how to resolve the story, and these two leads never have a romantic relationship: they never die together. Let’s be honest, Joe does not have the capacity to follow Lisa to finishing school in Switzerland. Joe and Lisa don’t make sense to us, and so the writers had to create a very evokes fantasy ending for us wherever Joe and Lisa. In any case, the ending does not have to be utterly absurd. Some base-level thought needs to be put into crafting an ending that, instead of unrealistic, is more achievable than what those writers came up with.
Upon the movie’s release, there was negative feedback towards Duncan Gibbins, who is the music video director of the film, for using an “MTV aesthetic.” Between all the reviews, no one elaborated why this was a disadvantage. I believe that the music video approach adds nuance to the film’s pacing and offers a unique sense of nostalgia to those who love the 80s cinema.
I would not recommend this movie. Most of the film earns a three-star rating from me on account of the entertainment value, especially among viewers fond of teen romance. However, those commendable aspects are not sufficient to out balance the other aspects of the film.
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