Review of Guarding Tess (1994) by Liam C — 03 Jun 2014

300th movie review! Should have been 300 but oh well! This was planned for awhile. Guarding Tess is a very funny and likeable comedy film enlivened by standout performances from Nicolas Cage and Shirley MacLaine.

I also use the term comedy very loosely, not because it wasn't funny or anything, the opposite is true in-fact, but the films tone changes heavily right near the end and it feels like two halves of a different film using variations of the same script and then it was just spliced together, not only that but it feels like a normal film about two people that just has comedy in it, not, a comedy film that has people in it.

I was going to call this a lighthearted comedy instead of a likeable comedy at the start but the ending just has the biggest tonal shift and it was quite strange! The film, however, reeks of the 1990s, if I didn't already know when the film came out it wouldn't take me long to work it out.

Musical cues, little quirky moments for brief comedic relief and fade out cuts? Oh yeah, this a 90s film. Not that there's anything bad with that but the comedy is a product of it's time, which sounds weird but it's just the type of humour that was funny around that time and without giving spoilers away you'll just have to take my word for it.

Again, I'm not saying it wasn't funny, it's just when I laughed I just thought to myself 'oh that 90s humour, how we miss ye'. Even for its silly comedic appearance it shows off at first the film does have a deep undertone to it, it involves death, moving on and kidnapping.

Even with the negatives that I focused on for the the majority of this review I did in fact enjoy the movie and I liked my time with it.