Wind, humidity and any number of other factors can transform a forest fire in unpredictable ways. And sometimes, movies like “Only the Brave” also find ways to stray from the path we’re expecting them to take.
Based on Sean Flynn’s GQ article about the first municipal fire department to become an elite “hot-shot” squad sent in to extinguish huge and deadly forest fires, this film starts out so safely square (and square-jawed), that it feels like a World War II movie about a colorful squadron heading to Normandy. But as the story builds, these characters become richer and more complicated — and the stakes become more deadly — resulting in a movie with a delayed but no less potent dramatic punch.