The Guardian film review

certificate_12A

THE GUARDIAN

Kevin Costner has made a career of playing resolute, gritty characters. He can be dependably earnest, but has perhaps not always been the best judge of a good script. The Guardian uses all his assets to their best advantage, but that still doesn't prevent it from being clichéd and unreservedly sappy. Not to mention way way way too long.

Finding an original focus for an adventure drama is increasingly difficult so the elite branch of the US Coast Guard that is the Rescue Swimmers at least offers a fresh canvas. The insight it provides into the training methods and demands of the job is the most absorbing element of The Guardian and certainly more interesting than the flimsy story.

Costner plays Ben Randall, a legendary veteran of the Coast Guard Rescue Swimmers. When his partner and crew are killed in an accident, the traumatizing effects, combined with his age, convince his boss to transfer him away from active duty and put him in charge of training new recruits. Among the first batch of trainees is the cocksure Jake Fischer (Ashton Kutcher), a high school swimming champion determined to assume Randall's crown.

The rivalry between teacher and pupil is a familiar plot, nevertheless both Costner and Kutcher imbue their scenes together with an emotional integrity and warmth. Kutcher shows he's capable of more than a cute smile, though he is drawn upon to do that all too often. Randall and Fischer inevitably have, romantic involvements, though each feels obligatory rather than convincing. Randall's wife Helen (Sela Ward), fed up with taking second place to his career, leaves him with the parting explanation, "It's time for me to rescue myself." Fischer, on the other hand, flashes his pearly whites to win over a pretty schoolteacher (Melissa Sagemiller).

The action sequences at sea are effective, but used only as bookends to much of the superfluous meandering wedged in between. For long periods The Guardian idles along, marking time, before a finale that ratchets things up to an almost absurd level. Any semblance of tenable reality is jettisoned in favour of trite plot lines that combine to drag things out beyond reason while reducing The Guardian's impact. With films such as Collateral Damage and Under Siege, director Andrew Davis has shown a propensity for excess. If less is more, then conversely more is less.

Kevin Murphy