The Guardian

Ashton Kutcher finds the heat is on as a trainee coastguard swimmer

Herald rating: * * *

Anyone who can still remember the forgettable big screen version of the The Perfect Storm might recall that the best bits weren't on the doomed fishing boat but in scenes where a yacht crew were plucked from the sea by a US Coastguard rescue chopper.

Multiply those sequences by five or six and you have the best bits of The Guardian, a movie about the organisation's elite rescue swimmers, the guys whose job it is dive out of a perfectly good chopper into the sea below.

There are, however, some other bits involving Kevin Costner as the wise old mentor who becomes a trainer, a tragic accident, and Ashton Kutcher as a former college swimming champ and Coastguard newbie desperate to prove himself.

Costner has been here before - not just as as the aquaman of Waterworld - but as the gruff middle-aged mentor to the greenhorn, and the role is as snug a fit as his wetsuit. Playing a guy facing the end of his prime, he keeps it watchable.

But far less convincing is Kutcher, who might be playing a brash but gifted athlete with his own demons, but too often all that goofy handsomeness of his makes you wonder if the film's working title was Dunk'd.

Costner and Kutcher knock heads; Kutcher wanders off into An Officer and a Gentleman romantic subplot with a local school teacher, while Costner tries to repair his failing marriage (but when his wife says "I need to work on rescuing myself" you just know all hope is lost), but the two men come to an understanding.

As tough as the training is at "A School" - well they couldn't very well call it "Flippercamp" could they? - it's still a movie that manages to be damper on dry land than it is at sea.

But when it heads out there you can't help but be impressed by the dangers and excitement of the job. Less impressive is the film's interminable finales. It's a film drowning in endings.

Cast: Kevin Costner, Ashton Kutcher
Director: Andrew Davis
Rating: M low level offensive language
Running time: 139 mins
Screening: Village, Hoyts, Berkeley
Verdict: Kevin Costner and big action scenes saves Coastguard thriller from drowning in cliches