Guarding Tess (1994)

Sick Product of a Sick System

A Disappointing Continuation

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Secret service agent Doug Chesnic (Nicolas Cage) is tired of guarding widower former First Lady Tess Carlisle (Shirley MacLaine). She makes him essentially a domestic servant. After his three years stint, he is happy to move on from what he considers the worst assignment in the service, but she uses her influence on the current President to keep him on her detail. Earl Fowler (Austin Pendleton) is the driver and Frederick (Richard Griffiths) is her nurse.Shirley MacLaine's dragonlady is not fun, or funny, or even likable. Nicolas Cage isn't that likable either. He's all bitter. I can see the concept but the execution is problematic because I don't like these characters. It's necessary for a comedy to either like the characters or like to laugh at the characters. I feel for Cage suffocating under her but not enough to like him either. The second half does work better as a thriller although it's hard to get invested after not liking the first half.

I know that when most movies start (or for that matter, most books), it takes time to "set things up". But honestly, this film is downright boring for almost the first half. After all, we all know where this film is going...at least generally; either there will be an assassination plot against her or a kidnapping, or some life-threatening event.Once we reach that point, then things get darned interesting. Although with more time for this part of the film, it could have been done much more nicely. The sentimentality was crucial to the film, but more time should have been given to the action; there could have been a better balance.Can I believe Nicholas Cage as a secret service agent? Yes. Can I believe Shirley MacLaine as a feisty First Lady? Yes. Both of these two main actors do very nicely here.The slightly creepy Austin Pendleton is so good here, as he almost always was. You kinda know he's a suspect, and he plays it perfectly. Edward Albert seems rather superfluous here.The other supporting actors all do well here, although none stand out.It's a decent film, but not outstanding. But Shirley MacLaine is a joy and a treasure.

Having just read a section of the book Camera Politica, the idea of reaction against feminism has been on my mind. Some of the movies of the early eighties was much a reaction against feminism and the rebuilding of the patriarchal society. Guarding Tess is a movie that falls into this category, though it was released in the early 90's. Guarding Tess is a reaction to is the woman's desire for individuality.Guarding Tess is about a former first lady Tess Carlyse (Shirley McClaine) and a secret service agent (Nicholas Cage). The agent finishes his duty looking after Tess and returns to Washington but is pulled back straight away because Tess trusts him. Tess is a very strong willed, dominant woman that does not like people pushing her around. She has mostly male servants and secret service agents, and likes to try and break away from their watching every so often. Tess is portrayed as a typical feminist who wants to be independent of male support.Tess' character goes deeper though for she also takes the role of the dominant gender. She is not happy unless she dominates the male sex, such as the seven secret service agents in her employ. The President, who sounds like a cowboy, is also very much dominated by her, and we see from the couple of phone calls she has with him (actually only one at the end) that she has him under her control.This movie though goes to undermine this dominance of the female to show the need for the woman to rely upon the male. Tess is not only dying of a brain tumor, but she is placed in a position of helplessness that without her secret service agent, she would die. She is a very strong woman, but she needs a male to survive. This is played out in the kidnap scene, where Cage digs her out of her grave.Tess treats Cage like a son. This becomes apparent when we meet her son, an ambitious, but failing, real estate salesperson. He comes to visit her but only to try and win her support on a development program. We realise that what Tess really wants is a relationship, one of equals and friendship rather than business associates.In some ways this is a relationship movie, and the theme music reveals this. The break in the relationship caused by the kidnapping is a sorrowful part of the movie, not an exciting part. It is about relationships and dependence. It is a lash at feminism to say that even if the male cannot do anything else, we need them for companionship for that is the fundamental aspect of our nature: relationship.

Tess Carlisle (Shirley MacLaine) is a former first lady of the United States, whose husband died while in office. Back home in Ohio, her secret service detail is headed by Special Agent Doug Chesnik (Nicolas Cage.) The movie basically traces the relationship between the two. I suspect that guarding a former first lady is not an especially exciting assignment for a secret service agent in the first place. Tess, however, is a nightmare for Chesnik. By turns rebellious toward and then dependent on her detail, she makes Chesnik's life miserable to the point at which he wants nothing more than a new assignment. Every time he tries to get transferred, though, Tess calls in favours from the new president and gets him re-assigned to her. It's the symbiotic relationship between the two that's interesting here.This is, on the whole, a surprisingly sad movie. Tess is isolated inside her home, rarely going out, and with little if any relationship with her children. Her son (played by Edward Albert) appears briefly in the movie, obviously looking not for a warm family visit with his mother but simply trying to get her to allow her name to be used to support a business deal he's involved in. Meanwhile, Chesnik is a more mysterious character about whom we learn little, except that he's a dedicated agent who had a brief and apparently troubled marriage in the past. The movie leads up to Tess's kidnapping and the search for her, which eventually leads to a heartwarming reunion between her and Chesnik, as both demonstrate their loyalty to one another. To be honest, this isn't a very exciting movie, perhaps making the point that such an assignment isn't the one that secret service agents aspire to. It's also not a bad movie. MacLaine and Cage both offered good performances, and that last twenty minutes or so after Tess's kidnapping is well done, leaving you with a pretty good taste in your mouth. (6/10)