Guarding Tess (1994)

Guarding the President of the United States is tough enough, but taking on a widowed former first lady can be shear hell on earth. Nicolas Cage gives one of his most vibrant performances as a special agent with the worst assignment possible: protecting Shirley MacLaine! Continuing her string of grumpy old women, it's gotten to the point to audiences don't know who the real MacLaine really is. Some eccentric student of the metaphysical or the grouchiest woman outside of Cinderella's step-mother. Certainty, ever since "Terms of Endearment", her characters have just gone from slightly cranky and cynical to downright mean. Sometimes, her characters just seem to get a huge thrill out of their nastiness.Tess Carlisle is one tough cookie who could give Nancy Reagan a run for her money. Through her influence, Nicolas Cage is not permitted to leave her, and the questions arise is to just why she won't let him leave. It's obvious that he simply can't stand her and she certainly doesn't treat him with respect. So on his second term with her is a change for them as everything comes out to evaluate the truth behind her obsession with him.Like the hysterical calls Ethel Merman took from Harry Truman in "Call Me Madam", this has the recurring gag of Cage getting calls from the unseen president complaining about calls he got from Tess. While we didn't hear Harry (only Merman), we do get to hear the President's voice, hysterically pretentious in the voice-over of Hugh Wilson. A huge cast of veteran character actors support Cage and MacLaine most expertly, especially Richard Griffith's as her cook and Austin Pendleton as her chauffeur. Edward Albety has a small role as MacLaine's son.It takes a while but eventually, Cage does begin to see MacLaine as more than just the nasty witch she comes off as. She is a woman scared of her situation and troubled by being put out to pasture outside of the political arena. MacLaine slowly comes around too, and a touching bond is formed. As they get to know each other, she becomes a lot more compassionate to the others on her staff and learning to have fun again. This isn't a film of great shakes but in character driven terms, it really works well. You have to just have some patience in dealing with MacLaine's over-the-top meanness. It is not clear that she is based upon any of the former first ladies who were still living at the time although Jacqueline and Nancy are mentioned. Perhaps one day we'll see "Guarding Hilary", but in the meantime, we'll have to settle for a fictional one.

This is not the first time that we have seen Shirley McLaine play the role of a crusty old lady and in the 1994 movie "Guarding Tess" is no exception either. But it has me wondering, how many bitchy roles has McLaine played throughout her career? If you check out IMDb.com you will notice that she has played a myriad of cantankerous characters (the best being "Terms of Endearment"), but no matter what she has played those roles flawlessly. Therefore, we can safely summarize that McLaine could have easily played her part as widowed ex-First Lady Tess Carlisle with her eyes closed.Situated between the genres of comedy and drama, I felt that the comedy out-weights the drama by a near margin of 55 to 45 percent. However, no matter how you look at it, "Guarding Tess" is a warm, affectionate and light-weight that succeeds in refraining from being overly hilarious and from being overly sentimental. Without being judgemental, we get to take a liking to Tess and her guard a Secret Service Agent Doug Chesnic (Nicolas Cage), we still feel that they're still strangers to their audience. Sure we understand that Doug has other ambitions with with his life and Tess is quite lonesome. But everything we know about Tess and Doug and the other supporting characters is what's shown on the screen. There is no physical, mental or visual indicators that give us any information as to why Tess hardly has visitations from anyone.One of the more memorable scenes is when Tess goes grocery shopping. McLaine steals every scene she's in and she does this flawlessly. Then after news of her abduction, Doug goes out to get information of her whereabouts and goes far as to shoot someone's toe off during that process. Later when he tells her about the whole toe incident she responds in a pitiful way. I also found it hilarious when Tess goes on the phone and starts speaking to the current President and refers to him by his first name.Overall, this movie was light in comedy and drama and the characters on the whole were very likable. The chemistry between the two leads Tess and Doug was very magnetic and there are many scenes with will linger in mind for a longtime. I only wish that there was more information as why these characters are what they are and the only thing we know about the characters is what's presented on the screen. And so what if Shirley McLaine is type-casted as a crusty old widow, she's natural in playing those kind of roles.

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)