GUARDING TESS (1994) **

Nicolas Cage stars as a Secret Service agent assigned to watch and protect a feisty former First Lady, played by Shirley MacLaine.  He’d rather be in the center of the action, guarding the sitting President instead of being cooped up in a mansion in Ohio acting like a glorified butler.  She’s a cantankerous old biddy who knows how to push his buttons.  He gets fed up with her bullshit, but since she can get on the phone and call the President and complain any time she wants, she holds all the cards.  Eventually, the pair form a mutual bond and Cage shows his true colors in a crisis when he rescues her from some half-assed kidnappers.

Directed by Hugh (Police Academy) Wilson, Guarding Tess is a sweet-natured dramedy that’s all fluff and no friction.  Cage refers to the film as part of his “Sunshine Trilogy” that also includes It Could Happen to You and Honeymoon in Vegas.  It’s easily the least entertaining, mostly because it’s the staidest of the three.  Even the odd kidnapping subplot that rears its head in the third act is much too pat and feels out of step with the rest of the flick.  It’s a solid premise and all, and it’s not particularly bad.  It’s just that it feels more like a movie your mom would watch on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Cage infuses the film with occasional Cagey theatrics, but for the most part, he comes across as solemn and a bit bored.  MacLaine plays yet another variation on her grouchy old lady routine, and only fleetingly shows signs of a much more interesting character.  Too bad the movie uses her more as a plot device rather than a character.  The two stars have a modicum of chemistry together, but unfortunately there’s no real fireworks between them.  At the end of the day, Guarding Tess is a pleasant, but forgettable, inessential Cage vehicle.