The film follows the true-life story of the Granite Mountain hotshots, a group of highly-skilled firefighters that set fires to combat and control wildfires, who met a tragic end in June 2013. But the filmmaker behind ' Tron Legacy' and ' Oblivion' has set his sights on a more earthbound experience with his new film, ' Only the Brave.' Brolin’s Marsh is a guy with a bear belt buckle and bear figurines on his table who fights repeated dreams about a flaming bear.Director Joseph Kosinski is known for his glittery sci-fi vistas and technologically-ambitious concepts. The film goes a little too far at times with the metaphors and imagery. (“It’s not easy sharing your man with a fire.”) Andie MacDowell is woefully underused as his wife, out of focus in the background in several shots, then given the worst lines. Jeff Bridges is less successful as a local fire official no one seemed to inform the legend he’s in a good movie. Amanda Marsh is given her own noble career in horse rescue, her own plot turns, along with her own dreams. In lesser disaster films, Connelly would howl most of her lines into a phone, forced into repetitive reaction shots in a kitchen or living room. Miles Teller as Brendan McDonough is a standout, beginning as a dead-eyed drug user, then gradually turning into a responsible adult.īut the strongest example of the writing can be seen in Marsh’s wife, played with dry humor and steel by Jennifer Connelly. There are no “Top Gun”-style one-note supporting players in “Only the Brave.” The character-building has an episodic television feel, with subtleties and quiet moments to counterpoint the fiery climaxes. “Come and get it!”) and moments of humor, while constantly adding layers to each of the leads.

They combine muscular language (“You want a piece of me,” Marsh says to a fire. A scene where the firefighters have done their job, and watch a diverted fire drop burning trees into a lake, is particularly lovely.Įxperienced screenwriters Ken Nolan (“Black Hawk Down”) and Eric Warren Singer (“American Hustle”) seem to understand the modern Western they’ve been charged with creating. And the audience feels each victory along with the protagonists. Human beings have rarely looked smaller on the big screen. Stopping an enormous, hard-charging, deadly natural force is a strategy game, requiring hard work and instinct. Then, once the audience feels caught up, Kosinski uses this new language to craft innovative action.

Only the brave star