The Lifeguard (2013)
Average Rating: 4.4/10
Reviews Counted: 30
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 26
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 3.7/10
Critic Reviews: 11
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 9
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 2.8/5
User Ratings: 2,713
Movie Info
Leigh, almost 30, is living a seemingly perfect life in New York. But when her career and love life both come crashing down, she flees to her suburban hometown and regresses right back into high school life. Picking up right where her teen halcyon days left off, she moves into her old room with her parents, hangs out with friends who never left town, and reclaims her high school job as a condo-complex lifeguard. But as Leigh enjoys shirking off adult life and responsibilities, and enters into an
Cast
-
Kristen Bell
Leigh -
Mamie Gummer
Mel -
Martin Starr
Todd -
Alex Shaffer
Matt -
Amy Madigan
Justine -
Joshua Harto
John -
David Lambert
Little Jason -
Adam Le Fevre
Hans -
John Finn
Big Jason -
Paulie Litt
Lumpy -
-
Mike Landry
Officer Miller -
Tom Kondilas
Officer Federici -
Carlos Velazquez
Marco -
Lisa Ann Goldsmith
Matt's Mom -
Anthony Marino
Scrappy Kid - Aaron -
Debbie College
Tabitha
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All Critics (30) | Top Critics (11) | Fresh (4) | Rotten (26)
Although writer-director Liz W. Garcia's wistful, angsty tale treads familiar ground, the filmmaker has crafted a credibly flawed and conflicted heroine who holds interest.
Top CriticThe central character simply comes across as whiny and entitled instead of troubled and dark, and the central theme of getting your groove back by acting like a kid again has been done many times by much more talented filmmakers.
The movie really depends on Bell, and her story, and neither is interesting or compelling enough to engage us.
This directorial debut by Liz W. Garcia, a writer for television, bears some echoes of its creator's origins, going from deft to trite in its drama and setting up character arcs that feel sappily resolved within its feature length.
The movie's being billed in some quarters as a comedy, which is a hell of a stretch given that the plot expands to take in statutory rape and teen suicide.
This sorrowful, achingly wise little drama has a lot to say about the dangers of hanging on to youth at all costs.
Drama is short on story, long on illicit romance.
A strikingly realistic approach lifts this comedy-drama above the fray, combining skilful writing and direction with transparent performances that reveal the characters' internal struggles.
The writer/director stifles any actual feeling with thudding, heavily-underlined subtext-as-text dialogue and an overreliance on indie rock scored musical montages
"The Lifeguard" is hemmed in by vagueness and cliche, and nearly ruined by its soundtrack, an insistent barrage of thematically obvious alt-radio music cues.
With apologies to Thomas Wolfe, you can go home again; The Lifeguard just proves that sometimes it's not the best course of action.
The film strains to be hip and edgy in its exploration of catharsis through starting over, and its central relationship feels more contrived than authentic.
Solid performances can't save the undercooked, shallow, overly simplistic screenplay.
Bell gives a strong performance, eschewing her own perky persona to navigate the melancholia, but the script's conclusion fails to go as deep as the heavy lead-in requires.
What the film desperately needed was some originality.
Apparently it's hard to be a grownup in today's crazy world without committing consequence-free statutory rape. Ugh.
The Lifeguard sadly drowns in its own clichés.
Like its lead character, The Lifeguard is stuck in a rut. After establishing Bell's frustration within the first five minutes, the movie continually reiterates it.
Rather than feeling as though we're emotionally connected to [the lead character] during her descent, we're all too aware of the machinations of the screenplay, struggling to find ways to sink her and then bring her back up.
The fit's a little loose, but Bell reveals impressive range with this challenging role, helping to snap writer/director Liz W. Garcia out of the fog of absurdity she seems determine to remain in.
Audience Reviews for The Lifeguard
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| Topic | Last Post | Replies |
|---|---|---|
| A film that was wrong in so many ways.... | 19 days ago | 5 |
| Camel toe in trailer | 38 days ago | 1 |
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Good movie! The film is only exiting and exhilarating if you know before hand what Statutory Rape is and what are the consequences if you were to engage in this illicit act. In Connecticut, the legal consequence for statutory rape is prison for 10 to 20 years. Here in Florida is even worse. It means to be a registered as a sex offender for the rest of your life and not being able to live within a 3 mile radius of a High School, park or where children play. To find a place like that here in South Florida, you would have to move under a Highway and close to the Everglades swamps. Though a decidedly darker film than one would expect, tragic moments are often interrupted by a certain lightness that, in the film's conclusion, allows the audience to hope for our protagonists' future. This is definitely a film worth watching, if simply for the experience of becoming invested in this deeply character-driven story.
A former valedictorian quits her reporter job in New York and returns to the place she last felt happy: her childhood home in Connecticut. She gets work as a lifeguard and starts a dangerous relationship with a troubled teenager.