Everyone pays attention to former presidents, but what about former first ladies? Guarding Tess shows audiences what happens when the spouses leave the White House.Shirley MacLaine is a widowed former first lady, guarded for the rest of her life by the Secret Service. She gives her usual wonderfully gruff performance with touches of sensitivity and heart when it matters. She's just lovely. Nicolas Cage gives an equally brilliant performance as her main agent, frustrated by his boring assignment and Shirley's grouchy disposition.The two play off each other beautifully, and the audience is given an unusual but touching love-hate friendship to watch. Guarding Tess is a really fantastic movie, with great acting and a memorable theme, and it's really knowledgeable, too! Pretty much all the information I have about the Secret Service I learned from this movie.

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.

I know that when most movies start (or for that matter, most books), it takes time to "set things up". But honestly, this film is downright boring for almost the first half. After all, we all know where this film is going...at least generally; either there will be an assassination plot against her or a kidnapping, or some life-threatening event.Once we reach that point, then things get darned interesting. Although with more time for this part of the film, it could have been done much more nicely. The sentimentality was crucial to the film, but more time should have been given to the action; there could have been a better balance.Can I believe Nicholas Cage as a secret service agent? Yes. Can I believe Shirley MacLaine as a feisty First Lady? Yes. Both of these two main actors do very nicely here.The slightly creepy Austin Pendleton is so good here, as he almost always was. You kinda know he's a suspect, and he plays it perfectly. Edward Albert seems rather superfluous here.The other supporting actors all do well here, although none stand out.It's a decent film, but not outstanding. But Shirley MacLaine is a joy and a treasure.

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.