The Guardian (2006)

Directed by: Andrew Davis | 139 minutes | action, drama, adventure | Actors: Kevin Costner, Ashton Kutcher, Sela Ward, Melissa Sagemiller, Clancy Brown, Omari Hardwick, Alex Daniels, Adam Peña, Joe Arquette, Keith Sweitzer, John Heard, Brian Geraghty, Dulé Hill, Shelby Fenner, Michael Rady, Peter Gail, Brian Wade, Benny Ciaramello, Travis Willingham, Tilky Jones, Megan Melgaard, Scott Mueller, Damon Lipari

Oh dear, it was time again for a film that confirms the hero status of a certain profession. After the fire brigade, police, doctors, pilots and miners, it is now the turn of the coastguard. Not entirely unjustified, by the way, because if we learn one thing from ‘The Guardian’ is that rescue swimmers have a damn tough profession. Director Andrew Davis, who caused a furore with a number of Steven Seagal vehicles, is at the helm and manages to put down a decent film. Ben Randall (Kevin Costner) is a skilled rescue swimmer who has saved countless lives in the icy waters in Kodiak, Alaska. During a nighttime mission, he loses his entire team and is left a broken man. He is given the choice to train a group of cadets at the ‘A’ academy, a school for rescue swimmers and snatches it.

In his group is Jake Fisher (Ashton Kutcher) who is bursting with potential, but not yet the right attitude. Randall subjects the boys to a Spartan training schedule as he tells tough stories about what it’s like to be a real rescue swimmer. His unorthodox methods meanwhile raise eyebrows among the school’s leadership, reaffirming what a hunk Randall is. Let alone that ‘The Guardian’ uses an awful lot of cheese. The script clearly doesn’t care about avoiding clichés and makes this painfully clear: The exasperated old hero, the smart talent with ditto sweetheart, the ‘last’ mission and a dozen tough one-liners are not spared us. Biggest hitch is Kutcher who just doesn’t know how to convince. Kutcher has been given the opportunity several times over the past few years to develop into serious roles as well. He’s never been able to do this before and he can’t now.

During a scene where Randall and Fisher let go of their love-hate relationship and move towards a friendship, Randall learns about an important event in Fisher’s life. Kutcher must get very emotional here and actually does his best, but still comes across as hopelessly unbelievable. The words his character speaks are brimming with courage and conviction, but his body language and face remain disappointingly stiff. The scenes in which people are actually rescued offer the most tension. The race-against-the-clock feel is catchy and the effects are more than adequate. It is very coincidental that up to three times the coast guard helicopters have too little kerosene to calmly remove their swimmers and drowning people from the water. Moreover, there always seems to be severe weather on the Barents Sea.

‘The Guardian’ is an all-American hero film that never peaks, but neither does it bore. Remarkably enough, the long playing time is not that disturbing, the dialogues and Kutcher even more so. At the end, the rescue swimmer profession starts to take on almost mythical forms, rather exaggerated for the sober viewer but it fits the film. Watch it on a Sunday and forget it right away.