Leigh immediately reverts back to her high school ways, rounding up her friends Mel (Mamie Gummer) and Todd (Martin Starr), begging them to stay out late with her, and getting her job as a lifeguard at the local pool back. Only two people seem thrown by Leigh’s return, her mother (Amy Madigan) and her friend Mel’s husband, John (Joshua Harto), and while Leigh claims she is not having a breakdown, the fact that she thinks going back will help her move forward is an obvious sign of some slight delusions. Without a second thought, Leigh hops on a train and returns to her parent’s home in Connecticut, the lush landscape a stark difference to the harsh New York metropolis she is looking to escape. When The Lifeguard‘s Leigh (Kristen Bell), a reporter for the Associated Press, covers a story about a tiger who had been kept in a cramped Manhattan apartment, Leigh’s overly emotional reaction to the scratch marks on the windowsill make it clear Leigh is struggling with her own anxieties about being trapped in a life she did not see for herself. Bell, though sharp with repartee, does only so much with her character’s state of denial and momentary freedom - not to mention some heavy symbolism involving a human-interest story about a chained-up tiger.Įveryone has those moments when they question where their life is going, but hitting the pause button can end up doing more damage than good. It also makes it hard for her to fool herself that she’s both back in her element and above it all. The fling, rendered with some heat but also a nervous overlay of pop songs, diverts Leigh and ruffles her friends’ feathers (especially the one who works at the boy’s school). But the biggest problem with Leigh’s timeout, besides her overly shrewish mom, is her reckless, torrid affair with a 16-year-old skater with bedroom eyes (David Lambert). Her unabashed pause from life seems to inspire her friends - an assistant principal (Mamie Gummer) with an uptight husband and a closeted gallery owner (Martin Starr of “Freaks and Geeks”) - to take a breather as well. Watch The Lifeguard Online Fleeing a journalism job, or, rather, a terminated affair with her suddenly engaged editor, Leigh (Kristen Bell) returns to the toil of her youth, that standby of summer employment indicated in the film’s title.
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. Tales of summertime (or lifelong) regression have tended to involve comically adrift men, but “The Lifeguard” follows a woman just shy of 30 as she moves back in with her family in Connecticut.