The Lifeguard

where to start on this one...

i think opinions on this film will be formed from personal life experience and how much someone can relate to the characters. myself, I'm similar in age and circumstance to Leigh and recently made a life change much like hers (moving back home from the city) and while the mistakes and tumbles she makes are outright irresponsible, i could not help but like her character and the maturity she showed at the end.

the romance aspect of this movie, whilst most definitely *inappropriate* does reflect the mental state of the main female character played by Kristen bell. stifled by her routine adult life and the responsibilities that come with it, she finds solace in a younger group who bring out her inner teen as it were. i think this is extremely well portrayed in the film through the three main adult cast members, who were friends in highschool, that upon the return of Leigh (KB) all suddenly start to regress and rebel against the adult strains put on them. all three characters go a little wild and forget that 'time only moves in one direction' and their subsequent battles to re-balance themselves as adults was interesting to watch.

the strength of the young actors in this film prevented it from becoming smut. David Lambert had enough charisma that it was plausible that a confused and disturbed woman would be drawn to him, whilst still maintaining that young innocence that made the story equally as much about him maturing as it was about KBs character. Alex Shaffer was impressive and moving in his portrayal of a tormented young man.

could it have been done better? absolutely. does it contain inappropriate feelings and relationships...obviously yes. Does it convey the ability of people to mess up in the most stupid irresponsible ways....yup. i liked it. i wouldn't watch it again, but it was a good film. comedy it is not however and the tag-line cheapens the movie.

Leigh London (Kristen Bell) is 29 and ten months old. She's a reporter in NYC. She feels lost and moves back in with her parents (Amy Madigan). She reconnects with her school friends Mel (Mamie Gummer) and Todd (Martin Starr). Mel is the high school vice-principal and struggling to get pregnant. Todd is still in the closet. Leigh gets her old lifeguard job at the pool. She befriends pool maintenance guy's teenage son Little Jason (David Lambert) and they become more.

I really love Mamie Gummer and her struggles. I like Martin Starr also and his story could be expanded. Kristen Bell's story is probably the least interesting of the three. I still like her but it's not like she's having a grand romance. It would be better to have more time with Gummer and Starr. It takes too long having sexy time with Bell and Lambert. I didn't think it was that type of movie. There is also the character Matt. He is a big part of the ending. He should have been a much bigger part of the story. The movie should spends more time with him than the little section with Todd. He should be a bigger character. Both Matt and Little Jason are not particularly compelling. I love the three main actors but this isn't quite special enough.

Going into this movie, I didn't know much about it. I had seen a few previews in theaters and I had seen it promoted online a few times. Beyond that, I hadn't even thought about this movie.

As far as comedy goes, the movie isn't really funny. It has a few "haha" scenes but I don't see why they labeled this as a comedy, it has very dark themes such as depression, drugs, and sexual relationships with minors.

I didn't know where they were trying to go with the plot. It was undeveloped and shallow. I didn't have any idea what kind of people the characters were even by the end of the movie, there was little to no background on all of the characters. The most comical of all of the characters was the seeming role reversal of two of the characters, you had a control freak husband and all he cares about is starting a family, while all the wife wants to do is go out and have fun. It just doesn't seem like it was practical. The relationships are just off.

I will say that Kirsten Bell looks fantastic in a swimsuit. If that's all you care about, you may enjoy the movie. However, if you expect a movie with a decent plot and story, you should probably skip this one. The Lifeguard certainly misses its target as a deep-thought movie.

I thought this was a really good movie.

Whats bullshit is Netflix has movies like this with 1 or 2 stars that people don't watch and pass up because of the low ratings. I wish they would give IMDb ratings so that I could really gauge what to give a chance.

But anyways, again I thought it was a really good movie, with a realistic plot and story line. I thought it would have a "lifetime" feel to it but it had a life of its own.

If you don't have much to do, and you have an hour or two on your hands to watch a movie, I suggest this one.

It's easy to see why not everyone loves this film. It's just not all that funny. Or exciting. Or inspiring. Worst of all, it doesn't leave you with any sense of accomplishment or insight.

It works, however, if you can relate to this movie as an adult who has ever gone through a period of your life where you just wanted to go back to a simpler time.

I was able to relate in particular because like Leigh in the movie I actually went back to being a lifeguard in my 20s after graduating from college and not really knowing what to do with myself. And like Leigh, things didn't really work out entirely as I planned them to. Was it a good move? I'm a happy I did it? Did I learn anything from it? Hard to say really.

Similarly you're not going to find a lot of definitive answers in this movie as to whether the heroine makes choices that are right or wrong. But if you've had a similar experience - you'll feel like she's a friend.