Guarding Tess

It’s a little crazy as far as the story goes. At times, it’s a comedy, then a drama, but it feels right in neither case. On the other hand, it was nice to watch, and Nicolas Cage and his team together with Shirley MacLaine put on quite the show. Therefore, I think that three stars are very adequate. (08/20/2017)

An utterly ordinary and hardly memorable film, without doesn't have a single distinctive or remarkable scene. The actors perform at an average level, and even though there are occasional sparks between the diligent Nicolas Cage and the choleric Shirley MacLaine, it doesn't help the overall outcome much. Hugh Wilson is just a craftsman, and the second half of the script is forced and absolutely does not correspond to the first, slightly comedic part. The motive of the kidnappers is banally rushed, and the whole thing around the abduction and subsequent tracking is downright embarrassing, with the director still desperately focusing on depicting the relationship between the bodyguard and the ex-first lady rather than properly presenting a somewhat more complex connection between the individual film components. (04/23/2008)

I don't want to accuse the filmmakers of wanting to cash in on someone else's success, but if the film was called Guarding Miss Tess, the similarity would simply be too striking. After all, the only thing this has in common with Driving Miss Daisy is an elderly grumpy lady and her relationship to the man who was installed in her house. Otherwise, it’s a completely different movie. Well, having seen Miss Daisy, the plot could hardly have surprised me. It was just less convincing and lacked charisma. While Miss Daisy comes out of the comparison as an exquisitely carved piece of woodwork, this film is more of a roughly hewn log, or even a piece of plastic made to look like wood. To me it was a sort of vacuous thriller for which Nicolas Cage is perfect, but casting Shirley MacLaine was an inexcusable waste of her great acting talent. / Lesson learned: It's not a good idea to antagonize the restaurant staff before they serve you your food. It is, however, very, very courageous to antagonize the people who are looking out for your safety. (10/31/2022)