Guarding Tess

These days when you see Nicolas Cage's name on a film it's almost like a seal of low quality, but this hasn't always been the case. Guarding Tess is a comedy-drama-action hybrid featuring the unlikely but consumate pairing of Nicolas Cage and Shirley MacLaine. It's not a love story, but the film is about their relationship. I guess in a way it's a 'buddy cop' movie, in which two very different individuals have to learn to get along - in this case, one is the former First Lady of the U.S.A. and the other is a Secret Service agent. It's what I'd call a solid bread-and-beans dramedy, as much about character and feeling as it is a quirky action film.

Cage plays Doug, a by-the-book Secret Service agent looking for action but called back into another three year 'tour' of looking after Tess (MacLaine), the widowed wife of a former President. It's a job that no one (least of all Doug) takes seriously. He sees it as the worst job in the service as Tess treats him like a butler and makes him watch golf and opera, sand after having already served time with her he finds that the idea of another three years is almost too much to bear. So a battle of wills emerges between Doug and Tess.

Tess is obstinate, a fiercely independent woman left to decay in isolation by an institution she once served so well. We initially see her as a difficult woman but slowly we come to see why she's this way... forced to have a detail of Secret Service men who are also her only real human contact. We also see why she's so attached to Doug, and Doug finally learns how to understand her and becomes her most loyal servant. He looks out for her in ways that go beyond his job and becomes a surrogate son of sorts. And when she's kidnapped he's so upset that he doesn't even argue with the FBI or try to defend himself - she actually becomes more important to him than his job, and when he snaps it's heartfelt and moving.

I think a big part of why this unassuming film is so affecting is because it leaves all the big moments out of the dialogue. MacLaine and Cage get to play all their emotional epiphanies solely through their body language, eyes and vocal delivery. Just like people in real life - there are no lines of dialogue that demonstrate any real catharsis or development, instead we see their changing atttitudes through how they act. The whole thing is a beautiful exercise in showing and not telling, the subtle antithesis of crass melodrama in every sense. The revelation of why Tess requests Doug to be her personal bodyguard comes via some video footage that shows him visibly upset at her husband's funeral, she sees through his begrudging service and knows that he's a genuine person she can trust. He contrasts with her real son Barry (Edward Albert)... she's excited to see Barry but when he finally arrives it transpires that he only wants to see her for business endorsements, and we can see Tess' heart breaking in her eyes and she simply says "No". MacLaine is terrific in the role, never anything less than a real and complex three-dimensional individual. A lot of other actresses would've turned it into a caricature.

I also especially enjoyed the realistic banter between the other agents and servants, a lot of the film's humour comes from character interplay rather than situations, and Richard Griffiths is at his peculiar best as the house chef (though it's only a small role). It's a great movie, thoroughly uncliched without being over the top or bizarre, just an exceptionally well-acted drama that's both funny and moving.

DIRECTOR: Hugh Wilson
WRITER/SOURCE: Hugh Wilson and Peter Torokvei.
KEY ACTORS: Nicolas Cage, Shirley MacLaine, Austin Pendleton, Richard Griffiths, Edward Albert, James Rebhorn.

RELATED TEXTS:
- I shudder to say this, but Disney made a film called First Kid that shares a similar dynamic/set-up with Guarding Tess.
- See also Driving Miss Daisy, also about a grouchy old woman and the servant who learns to be her friend.
- For more White House-orientated drama/comedies, see Dave, The American President and First Daughter.

AWARDS
Golden Globes - nominated for Best Actress - Musical/Comedy (Shirley MacLaine).