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If Hollywood has
celebrated the firefighters, the NYPD and the LAPD and the Private
Ryans, they seem to have left out the`A0US`A0Coast Guards. Hence this
ode to the men and women of the elite group`A0of A school of rescue
swimmers. Their pay may be meagre but they get a chance to save lives.
And the legend in his lifetime is Ben Randall (Kevin Costner). Into
this group enters young, brash but very talented swimmer Jake Fisher
(Ashton Kutcher) and he has to be broken in. By whom, other than the
legend`A0himself. Calling him Goldfish and taunting him at every
possible occasion, there are enough of anecdotes to establish their
rapport. But as in Top Gun and other trainer films a spattering
of diverse characters keeps the action going. There is also the
schoolteacher (Melissa Sagemiller) who looks after the romantic
interest, adroitly handled. That Randall’s wife is about to leave
him is not unexpected in stressed jobs like his. The film opens with a
rescue scene and it is here that director Davis is at his best. It
then goes on to the training of these men and insights into their
psyches and this covers too much ground. But just when the father
figure and the maverick seem to see eye to eye, the show goes on
because they have to glorify the legend or the guardian.`A0 It is its
inordinate length that works against itself. The agony is prolonged
but when they resort to the beyond it is a bit too much with the film
changing genres as it were. Like ageing hero Clint Eastwood, Kostner
is learning to play his age and he is well matched by the young stud
Kutcher. May be action and psychology was too much for director Andrew
Davis to handle and he ends up neither here nor there. But it should
please Kostner fans nonetheless as he’s been out of action or some
years now.
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Remember
that mid-1990s disaster called Waterworld where`A0Kevin Costner
plays a marine in a trance in some futuristic adventures few could
follow? Well, in The Guardian (not to be`A0mistaken for one of
the better English dailies), he takes to the water again but this time
is`A0much more pragmatic as a Coast Guard hero though the action is
unduly stretched and for impact action-director Andrew Davis tries to
be Bergmanesque in his treatment of the beyond. 