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Printer-Friendly ModeGuardian falls short of greatness despite Costner
October 2, 2006 —
The Guardian is one of those movies that contains nearly all the necessary ingredients for an excellent movie but loses focus at some point in its development. It heaps on more and more until it is an overlarge meal of too many courses rather than the fresh sandwich it should be. It tastes pretty good, but it's just way too much.
Kevin Costner stars as Ben Randall, a decorated rescue swimmer for the Coast Guard. After an emotionally tolling accident as well as the impending departure of his wife, he is assigned to take it easy for a while by teaching and testing new recruits.
Ashton Kutcher co-stars as a troubled youth who has just enlisted. His high school swimming credentials fail to impress Randall, who has enough real-world experience with the Coast Guard to realize that swimming ability alone is only a small fraction of the skills necessary for a rescue swimmer, a career in which the responsibilities involved are difficult to overstate.
The meaning of the movie hinges on the idea of "letting go." Randall cannot let go of his wife nor his career, because his existence as a dedicated rescue swimmer is one in which never letting go of those he is saving becomes the most important aspect of life. Costner does a good job of portraying Randall as someone whom truly embodies his profession and as a result, this facet of the movie is very well done.
Where The Guardian fails is in its handling of Kutcher's character, Jake Fischer. Although we learn late in the movie things about Fischer's past that helps us empathize with him to some degree, it feels like a cop-out after watching an hour and a half or so of him bumbling through his training period. He is successful in all of the challenges set before him in the water but inexplicably behaves irresponsibly.
One would imagine that a person who shows the dedication and drive that Fischer portrays in training wouldn't lose track of time to such a degree that he winds up missing for a night, for example. It feels forced, like the movie is trying to mechanically set up the audience to feel for the character rather than allowing it to happen more naturally.
Another failing is the length of the movie. I honestly thought that the last thirty minutes could have been removed entirely. This portion of the film appeared to be a blatant excuse to pile on melodrama. Randall's character is strong enough that a movie could have been made just about him, and it would have been superior. Instead, The Guardian sidetracks itself to such a degree that it feels like the wrong movie was made.
Despite this, I enjoyed The Guardian. I sympathized with Randall, in large part because of the strength of Costner's acting. I felt less sympathetic toward Fischer, in large part because of the weakness of Kutcher's acting. Since about 60 percent of the movie focuses on Randall, it gets a 60 percent rating for being about what it should have been about for 60 percent of the time.