Time’s Richard Corliss looks at Religulous and Fireproof:
Our texts for today are two indie films, Religulous and Fireproof, that appeal to diametrically opposed audiences. I can’t imagine that there’d be a person who could respond to both films the way their makers want. If these movies happen to be playing in adjacent auditoriums at the multiplex, exhibitors might want to set up a police cordon.
On Religulous:
As someone with a similar bio-sketch to Maher’s — a religious skeptic raised in a middle-class Catholic family — I might be expected to be a devout follower of Religulous. But I can’t fully believe in it. Maher and Charles, the director of the Borat movie, should have come up with a rowdier, more penetrating exposé than this one. The film registers decently on the amuse-o-meter, and its offensiveness has a tonic value, but it’s deficient in shape, propulsion, urgency. Look at almost any Michael Moore movie, and you’ll find the sharp personality and editorial skills that are missing in Religulous.
There’s no question that the kooks give good sound bites, and Void knows there’s been enough evil committed in the names of Jesus and Mohammed. Still, I wanted Maher to confront, and be challenged by, the better class of believers: a Nobel Prize-winning scientist, perhaps, or some articulate Episcopalian or Islamist, or comedian and noted Catholic layman Stephen Colbert. Maher seems interested less in conversation than in confrontation, so his movie is less essay than inquisition. Maybe that tone will win Religulous some conversions, but this critic remains a skeptic.
On Fireproof:
Fireproof is a Christian parable, a sermon ornamented with a story, about a firefighter named Caleb (Kirk Cameron) whose marriage with Catherine (Erin Bethea) is falling apart. This theological imperative makes the film an anomaly among current releases. But almost as daring is its tackling of that taboo movie subject, an ordinary marriage. This isn’t a weepie, where the beautiful wife is dying, or a thriller, with one spouse trying to kill the other — just two people facing the burdens of living together after the first passion has ebbed, when the idle words and gestures of the person you used to love threaten to ascend to the level of war crimes.
…In theory, Fireproof is as alien to me as Religulous is familiar. At more than two hours, the film will make those viewers restless who aren’t utterly resistant. But there’s something affecting about its artless earnestness, its aim to dramatize large portions of ordinary lives that most movies ignore. I wasn’t converted, but I was charmed.