I went into Jay Russell’s new film “Ladder 49” with an indifference to what the film was about. I had seen the previews, and for the most part enjoy Joaquin Phoenix and John Travolta, so I was hoping for a good story and above-par acting. But aside from the tense, fiery beginning, I found myself looking at my watch as the movie dragged on, wondering when Russell would end this overly dramatic blaze of a film. At nearly two hours, it wasn’t soon enough.

As the film starts, firehouses from all over Baltimore are responding to a gigantic blaze in a 20-story warehouse. Jack Morrison (Phoenix) attempts to save one of the three people trapped on the 12th floor, but is trapped when the floor collapses beneath him. Battered and broken with flames all around him, Jack drifts in and out of consciousness, and his past is told, from the time he arrived at the station house as a rookie to the present, in flashback form. Meeting his wife, raising a family, and becoming part of the brotherhood that exists between firefighters, all of this is told from a humanistic point of view. As Jack’s fellow firefighters work to save him, his story is told leading up to the present.

The film certainly does capture that “grounded” view of this dangerous, and courageous, occupation that other films and television shows have or are capturing as well. Unfortunately, the film relies on the simplistic too heavily, and tries to draw out deep emotions in an all too melodramatic fashion. Certainly it is a tragedy when anyone dies, particularly in the line of duty, but the realization that this is what firefighters do on a daily basis and that they are human too shouldn’t be played for effect. As Jack mourns fallen comrades, he gets up the next day, straps on his boots, and continues to do his job because that is what he loves to do.

Writer Lewis Colick doesn’t add much more depth to the story, instead relying on those emotional factors to pull the film along. We get it. It’s a tough and terrible job. “Cubicle 49” about the life of an accountant would have been quite a bit less interesting, but put it in the middle of a firehouse and “Ladder 49” is what you’d get.

The saving grace of the film is the performance by Joaquin Phoenix, who sits atop my list of “actors I hate to love.” As Jack, he brings such depth and emotion to the role (as usual) that he does pull you along, watching and waiting for the next fire so that he can run in and save someone’s life. For some reason, Phoenix just seems to capture a moment in a film so sublimely (“Gladiator” and “Signs” come to mind, for example) that you can picture it well after you leave the theater. He’s not a fantastic actor, but he does have that spark that can save an entire picture.

Jacinda Barrett, who plays Jack’s wife Linda Morrison, is a bright spark in the film as well, lighting up the screen with a winning smile and a crafty spirit that matches the bravado of the firehouse men. Unfortunately (or fortunately), she even manages to outshine Travolta as Jack’s firehouse Chief Kennedy, who almost seems to phone his performance in. With the exception of one of the movie’s final scenes, there is little-to-no depth of his character. Sure, he jokes with his crew, and yells at them when they misbehave, but it’s a rather placated role. This could be the fault of either Colick or Russell, who don’t give us any reason to want to know anything about the Chief.

“Why do firefighters run into a burning building when everyone else is running out?” This is the eternal question that only those who fight fires really know. The rest of us blame it on courage, and we thank them for it, but they don’t show boat their actions and accept their admiration with a respectable humility. “Ladder 49” tries to show us that firefighters are extraordinary people with ordinary lives and dreams, but I for one would like to continue to think of them as heroes, since that’s ultimately what they are.