Into the Fire (2005) Online

Still blaming himself for the deaths of his sister and mother decades ago, lieutenant Walter Harwig (Flanery) of the NYC harbor unit, is encased in a life of sadness. While on duty investigating a plane crash, Harwig breaks down after discovering a dead body of a woman, and as a result is dismissed from duty. Now having lost the only thing with meaning in his life and being consumed by deep, abiding depression, Harwig will by fate meet two other individuals (Williams and Kanakaredes) whose lives are also rooted with misfortune. Together they will learn that the true meaning of life lies not in tragedy but in celebration.

The premise is real and story is believable and moving. There was a quote that stuck with me after the film was over. It was about living a life of celebration because it's the balance of living a life of tragedy on the same spectrum. Most of the themes in the movie revolve around similar issues, including reincarnation. Though, at times the story is slow and the conflict is confusing. I wasn't sure if this was a story about love or self-forgiveness until well into the second act. However, the cast is exceptional. Portraying the antagonist and protagonist, Sean Patrick Flanery's (Powder) performance was true, honest, engaging and his best work to date. Both Melina Kanakareses (CSI: NY) and JoBeth Williams (Poltergeist) supported Flannery and excelled the dramatic themes.

Aesthetics. Well done. Portrayed mostly hand-held, 'documentary style', its photography and production design are up to par with most of today's Hollywood pictures. The film was shot on 35mm with sharp color contrasts and at locations across New York City and Coney Island. The musical score is original and adds drama to the film without distracting the viewer from the story.

Review by, Darren R. Brandl

This was a most difficult story to understand and even after watching it twice I still didn't understand it. It was like an inside joke known only to those making the movie. For example the hero, who is a police lieutenant, gets into trouble but viewers are never told what he got into trouble for. This is a problem from beginning to the end. The ending just leaves the viewer hanging. There is a story which if properly told, could make for a good movie, but that wasn't case here. Part of the problem is that frequently the dialog is poorly written and the actors and actresses frequently mumble their lines which makes the story even harder to understand.

Walter Hartwig, a lieutenant in the Police Dept. harbor division, is a man carrying a big pain in his heart. To make matters worse, his actions at the scene of a tragic plane crash in the waters near JFK Airport will bring back the memories he has tried to suppress for years. His actions at the rescue operations are hampered when he sees an ethereal beautiful young woman floating in the waters that almost causes his buddy, Sandy Manetti, to lose his life.

Walter, who feels responsible for the death of her younger sister in the waters of Coney Island, can't forgive himself, or his lifesaver father, who was unable to rescue the young girl. Walter has lived all these years with a heavy heart because he can't forget the tragic accident that keeps haunting his memory. Walter can't face the fact his own father is confined to a mental hospital because in his own mind he feels the old man is to blame for his sister's death.

When he meets June, a middle aged woman, who has fainted in the sidewalk near her house, Walter sees a kind soul. June is also a woman with deep wounds, but contrary to Walter, she has learned how to accept the fact of losing her son, a fireman in the tragic events of September 11th 2001. Walter, who doesn't quite come clean to her about what is causing his grief, learns a lot from June, who must look at him as a substitute for Michael.

Walter has taken a bracelet from the drowned woman, Sabrina. He brings it to the center dealing with the tragedy. Sabrina's twin sister, Catrina, a young music teacher, is inconsolable and can't get over the loss of her sister, who finally has seen her dream come true. Walter feels a pull from the young teacher like he hasn't felt with anyone before.

"Into the Fire" is a sad film of such beauty it can't be dismissed easily. Directed with care by Michael Phelan, we are presented with people in despair. All the characters can't get away from the grief they feel as tragedy touched them. The film, which was shot entirely in New York, has a wonderful look thanks to its director of photography, Christopher Norr whose images of familiar places acquire a new look.

The film is enhanced by the intense performances of its principal players. Sean Patrick Flanery makes a marvelous portrayal of Walter, the suffering man who can't see his way out of the guilt he feels inside. Jobeth Williams makes an excellent June, a woman who understands what Walter is going through because she has been there as well. Ms. Williams' contribution to the film gives it a great serenity because of her understanding of June, a character she was born to play. Melina Kanakaredes is seen as Catrina, the music teacher in an intense performance.

This is basically Michael Phelan's triumph for bringing all the different elements of the story together in a movie that is sad, but ends up in a positive note.

The New York City Harbor Patrol's jurisdiction lives where the concrete ends and the water begins.

Walter Hartwig Jr., a man to whom the unit represents his family and life, is the Lieutenant in charge ON THIS NIGHT. As a jumbo jet crashes on final approach into Kennedy, Walter's tragic past seeps through his soul, causing him to lose. everything.

Catrina Hampton is a music teacher at a Manhattan grade school. Her twin sister Sabrina, always a nudge better than she, had just performed with the London Symphony. a dream they had shared as children. ON THIS NIGHT, Catrina awaits the return of Sabrina, her one guarantee that she would never be alone.

June Sickles is a beautiful woman, embodied by an even more auspicious spirit. She lives and breathes every day with the truth of having lost her firefighter son on 9-11 and now lives with her granddaughter Quinn, whom he left behind. They live in a quaint house on a quiet street in Brooklyn, not far from the very firehouse that her boy called home.

On a night like any other, tragedy will strike. ON THIS NIGHT, these three souls will not simply intersect, but collide, initiating their inevitable dance with the divine.

GREAT acting, GREAT cinematography, GREAT music! The plot?...eh. P.S.: for those who haven't yet seen this movie and would like to, don't read my comments.

so i needed some background noise while i multi-tasked around the house today and this movie was starting on tmc (the movie channel). minutes into the movie i set aside the vacuum cleaner. the movie's cinematography lured me in and the soundtrack, i thought, was intriguing. in other words, i was hooked. two hours later--give or take a few-- i was on the phone with my long-lost sister, telling her i loved her.

having read all the wonderful reviews and comments about this film on this website i thought to defend what commentator jackjack2 wrote about this movie. like jackjack2, i also found a lot of cracks in the plot. for instance, i don't get the connection between Walter (Sean Patrick flanery) and June (jobeth Williams)? one minute he's helping her off the street from a low- sugar fall and the next she's acting like his psychologist! and i'm not sure but, was June's firefighting son the guy who saved Walter, and not his sister, from drowning? if this was the writer's intention then all i have to say is...WHAT!? and finally, i also don't think it was made clear as to how and why Walter was responsible for his mom's death? i know why he felt responsible for his sister's death. we know he's angry at his life-guard father for not being able to save his sister from drowning. but we never know how his mother died?

on the other hand...you gotta give credit where credit is due and that would have to be the picture's editors. without them this wonderfully scored and photographed movie would have been an absolute mess of a film. given what the editor's had to work with, they managed to make some sense of it all; enough to make most of its viewers believe they had watched an "awesome" movie.

one would also have to hand it to the powerful acting performances of the main characters in this movie, including the little girl, Quinn, played by Lydia Jordan. however, i am ashamed to admit that until today i didn't know anything about a Sean Patrick flanery. until today i also hadn't seen nor heard a male actor, in any forum, cry as convincingly as flanery did in this tear-tugger. for that alone, i would have given him a statue. i really got a sense of the agony, the frustration, and the pain his character felt. they oughta put flanery in more pictures, he's THAT good! but of course it doesn't hurt to have his looks. as a matter of fact, even though i'm not crazy about blonds, i found him very, very attractive. and even though i've never been interested in physical muscularity, flanery is very well-proportioned. he kind-of looks like that new blond 007 guy--the guy in that creepy movie called "enduring love". DANIEL CRAIG!! flanery though, is cuter and softer on the eyes than Craig.

the scene that took me by COMPLETE surprise and had me crying out of the blue was the one where Catarina (melina kanakaredes) shares a touching moment with her doorman; letting him on her fears of being left alone after losing the only surviving member of her family. in this scene both Catarina and the doorman are exchanging thoughts while sitting on the floor…on opposite sides of her apartment's door. i think this was the director's sweetest touch. Scenes such as this begs for the viewer's suspension of their better judgments about the film's flaws and demands them to just go with the flow of it all.

in the end, i learned something about letting go of regrets, that clocks never seize to tick and tock for a tragedy and most importantly i learned to appreciate the ones i love-to-hate and hate-to-love for all they have to offer me.

oh and one last thing...i thought the ending WAS good. it's obvious that Walter makes amends with June and Quinn. Afterwards, as he's sitting outside his father's hospital, contemplating visiting him Walter tells himself he'll come back at a later time because he'd rather cross a bridge over Manhattan to see about his "alice." It's pretty simple and sweet.

Into the Fire is one of the best films about mourning that I've ever seen. I won't tell what causes Walter's (Flanery) grief, though the actual event isn't as central to the film as its devastating effect on him. Films are called "haunting" all the time, but here the word fits perfectly. There's a dreamlike quality to the movie that may be confusing at first, or seem like arty self-indulgence. But I think I found its purpose. Walter is in many ways a ghost in his own world. His pain and guilt are keeping him from performing his job, from building close relationships, from living his life. Everything changes after a plane crash, and once June (Williams) and Catrina (Kanakaredes) enter his life. Walter latches onto the older, wiser June, for reasons never really stated but obvious given Williams' warmth in the role. June turns into both a confidante and the one person who finally challenges Walter to confront what he'd spent so long trying to suppress. The two actors have a great chemistry, and their scenes together are the film's best.

It all sounds kind of heady, and it is. I would say that Into the Fire isn't for everyone, but I really think it IS for everyone. It's an increasingly rare film that gets its drama not from plot devices, but simply from the characters' hearts and minds, from their words and their tears. In the end, it's cathartic. And coming away, I felt like I'd learned something about what it is to be human: The way our regrets can imprison us if we let them. And the way our minds can sometimes trick our hearts into believing something that isn't really true at all.

A lot of the comments here about this movie seem to be of confusion. A second viewing should be attempted with other movie fans. That's how I viewed it. The movie requires some hand holding to fill in the blanks, that's the beauty of it. I don't know if that was a deliberate intention by the film maker, but I would like to think so. I know most like to have a movie played out before them without any effort to think needed, this movie is definitely not that kind of flix. Just reading some comments I can tell some have missed scenes or dialog. June was not just found because of low sugar levels. She has her own demons...a re-viewing my see them. Their relationship has very little to do with her son, but a need for a mother and a need for a son at a perfect intersection of lives. I believe everything you need to fill in the blanks are in the film. Sitting back and letting the story unfold before you in an simplistic straight forward time-line is not going to happen, a little effort on the viewers behalf is needed. I believe this is the intention of the film maker....BRAVO! to him