The
Guardian is a formulaic picture to be sure, but it's much better than the coming
attraction trailer might have you believe. Fusing themes made popular by films
like Back Draft, The Perfect Storm, Top Gun, An Officer and a Gentleman and Men
of Honor, this look at Coast Guard training proves to be surprisingly watchable.
While the film also has similarities to last year's ridiculous Annapolis, it manages
to be a big step up from that messy flick thanks to strong direction and a far
more character driven screenplay.
In
The Guardian, Kevin Costner plays Ben Randall, a decorated veteran of the Coast
Guard who's managed to save more lives than anyone in the history of service.
After a tragedy strikes Randall's expert team, he is urged, at the hands of his
senior officer (a terrific Clancy Brown), to hang up his wet suit and become a
trainer of new recruits. Reluctantly, he agrees and his trip to the academy brings
him face to face with cocky trainee Jake Fischer (played by Ashton Kutcher), an
all too eager ex-swim champ battling demons of his own.
The
Guardian runs at an overly long two hours and seventeen minutes, and a good hour
and fifty minutes of the story takes place at the academy. Most of the film plays
as a training montage, but it's very entertaining despite its familiarity. If
anything, it is the final act of the picture, in which one of our main characters
is thrown into a real life saving situation, where The Guardian slips into the
world of heavy handed mechanics.
Kevin
Costner is in full on olive-drab mode as a seasoned pro coming to the end of a
career. As he desperately tries to shake nightmarish visions of a rescue mission
gone wrong, he finds solace in training a young man he believes will carry on
his legacy. Costner has never been one of my favorite actors, but all be damned
if he hasn't appeared in some of my very favorite movies (Field of Dreams and
Tin Cup just to name two). Clearly, his strongest attribute has always been the
ability to pick good projects (aside from The Postman and Waterworld). Even when
he feels sorely miscast in a film (as he was in the brilliant Untouchables), the
movie itself soldiers on. This isn't to say Costner hasn't given us good performances.
He certainly has. I really liked his work in Roger Donaldson's No Way Out, and
he directed himself to new heights in Dances With Wolves and Open Range. More
often than not, however, I really tire of his monotone delivery. His role as Ben
in The Guardian is one of those performances. It isn't all out bad, but there
isn't anything particularly memorable about it.
Ashton
Kutcher by contrast, surprised the hell out of me. I bought into him. He has a
goofy swagger as Jake Fischer, and I really enjoyed him in the part. What's more,
there are a few moments that call for emotional depth, and Kutcher proves equal
to the challenge. His pivotal scene, in which his dark secret is ultimately brought
to the surface, is unexpectedly powerful.
As
a team, Costner and Kutcher play off of each other surprisingly well. Look no
further than a scene featuring an amusing altercation at an on base bar. As for
these characters' inevitable connection (you remind me of myself at your age)
that works too even though we've scene such plot devices in countless other films.
The
Guardian also benefits from strong supporting work. Sela Ward is effective but
underused as Ben's estranged wife Helen, while Clancy Brown is commanding as Captain
William Hadley. I also enjoyed Neal McDonough (so good on NBC's short-lived Boomtown)
as an intimidating but playful recruit trainer.
The
screenplay by Ron L. Brinkerhoff is certainly of the "been-there-done-that"
variety, but at least the film has heart. Furthermore, the choice to make The
Guardian a character driven piece instead of an action driven spectacle, was a
good one. I could have done without the last fifteen minutes of the movie. It
tugs far too hard at the heart strings, and the little, mythical speech that takes
up the final frames of the flick borders on complete and utter stupidity. For
a moment, I thought I was watching an M. Night Shyamalan film.
Director
Andrew Davis really keeps the movie watchable with his solid film making skills,
particularly with the rescue sequences. Even though The Guardian is a character
driven movie, the action scenes crackle with real intensity. This is certainly
Davis' best looking film since The Fugitive.
The
Guardian is hardly a masterpiece, but it isn't a bad film either. It's a good
looking picture with a lot of solid moments, and while it probably wont make any
best of lists at the end of the year, it's worth a look, particularly if you catch
a matinee.
