Joaquin Phoenix stars as a fire fighter of the Ladder 49 brigade, a man dedicated in both his work and his home life. We begin with a daring rescue that goes badly wrong and as we watch our injured and trapped hero, the film flashes back to the many events in his life that have brought him to this point. Ladder 49 is a worthy drama, but as pure entertainment becomes uncomfortably entangled in its earnest nature, teetering dangerously close to two dimensional po-faced dering-do when a little bit of humanity and some genuine characterisation would have achieved its objective so much more convincingly.