Good movie. Great friendship!

Sunny here.

So Guarding Tess is not a "great" movie, but the more I saw it after it came out, the more I liked it. One reason: Friendship. At some point (or points) in your life, you find out who your friends are. In the movie, despite differences in politics or ambitions or personal beliefs or backgrounds or status, the former first lady and her head of security, Doug Chesnic, become and are friends, even if they think they don't like each other. She is especially touched by this younger man's reaction at the funeral of her husband (which she watches over and over again on a tape of the live broadcast), who was a president that Chesnic protected. Fictional or not, one has the impression that hers was not an affected response, which makes it all the more meaningful in the movie.

This movie grows on you and gives you an insight into a true friendship, as when the former first lady forces a helicopter to re-land, and she has all the pompous bureaucrats disembark so that her personal security team can ride with her to the hospital even though the additional security forces feel her team has been disgraced and doesn't deserve the ride with her. Interesting to note that she doesn't feel her security detail has been disgraced at all even though she's constantly at odds with them and has been kidnapped and has had to be rescued but refuses to go anywhere without them.

Guarding Tess reminds us that friendships are not easy and require work and compromise and growth on both parts. Irritation, disagreement, disillusionment, affectation, qualification of terms: some or all of these negatives emerge in a true friendship of more than a few years. But a real friendship survives and is even enhanced by our personal growth and personal battles. For once, Hollywood got it right.

Thanks,
Sunny