Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
Doug is a Secret Service Agent who has just completed his stint in charge protecting Tess Carlisle—the widow of a former U.S. President, and a close personal friend of the current President. He finds that she has requested that he not be rotated but instead return to be her permanent detail. Doug is crushed, and—after returning—wants off her detail as she is very difficult to guard and makes her detail crazy with her whims and demands.
Guarding Tess is a mild, watchable odd-couple comedy-drama elevated almost entirely by the chemistry between Shirley MacLaine and Nicolas Cage. The plot is thin and predictable — a reluctant bodyguard chafes against a demanding VIP widow — and while it has a tonal shift toward drama in the final act, it doesn't fully commit to either genre. MacLaine is reliably sharp and Cage is earnest, making the acting the clear highlight. Cinematography is workmanlike and unremarkable for a mid-budget 90s studio picture. The concept, while charming in execution, is not distinctive enough to score high on novelty — the premise feels very TV-movie in conception. The ending attempts gravitas but lands somewhere between touching and anticlimactic, not quite earning its emotional weight.