“The Guardian” starts out with action-packed life saving scenes during massive storms taking place in Alaska. It shows life as a rescue swimmer in the Coast Guard affectively. Although the movie was precise on actions taken in real life in the Coast Guard, the movie failed to meet the critics’ standards.
“The Guardian” stars Ashton Kutcher, as Jake Fisch, a driven and cocky trainee who was an all-state swimmer in high school who was out to conquer his training. While Kevin Costner played an esteemed rescue man, Ben Randall who is sent to train potential rescue swimmers such as Jake out of his own will. Of course, Jake meets a local schoolteacher, played by Melissa Sagemiller at a bar that he remains involved with throughout the entire movie. Ben Randall is married with a wife who leaves him after a twenty something year marriage who he fights to win back until the end of the movie.
The majority of the movie is spent showing the audience the hardships of training with numerous pool scenes of men treading water or pushing bricks along the bottom. It is quickly picked up that teamwork is number one in the Coast Guard and it is highly stressed throughout the entire training process.
A huge downside to the film is the fact that it lasts 135 minutes. It lasted quite awhile and a few restroom breaks, but I never found myself checking the time or wondering if it was over already. Some reviews over the movie found this a huge negative, but the movie seemed to keep moving with something new constantly happening.
The actors played their roles well, but this was not one of Costner’s best of films. He was there; he played his part but never seemed to wake up. He just sort of floated throughout the film from one scene to the next, not really bringing much life to his character. Ashton Kutcher, on the other hand, did not seem to have any problem fulfilling his cocky but hard-working role as Jake, also known as “Goldfish” by Costner’s character.
The film may not have been favored by the movie critics but do not let that stop you from seeing this movie. It gave me a whole new respect for the Coast Guard and the sacrifice they make to help save others’ lives.