And now for another movie that seems frightfully true to life; thank heavens for that. Most of us have been there, you go through school thinking you have it all figured out, you predict where you'll be in ten years - white picket fence, double income no kids perhaps - and you manage to bag yourself a degree. Then you leave college, start out on your quest to line up all of your proverbial ducks in a row only to find yourself, almost out of nowhere, feeling inexplicably lost. While having money is fun, the monotonous ways in which many of us have to earn it, is far from the fireman/president/astronaut dreams we harboured as kids. I like to call it a quarter life crisis; you should be on a one way track toward the idyllic picture-perfect lifestyle that society would have you believe you need - the apartment, the boyfriend/girlfriend, the social life, and you'd have have expected to have knocked off at least a few career steps by 30 years of age - but somewhere along the ride, your chain has unhinged itself from the bike and you don't know your arse from your elbow. Worse still, you wake up to the dawning realisation that you get older, yes, but not necessarily wiser. Bummer.
But fear not. It doesn't mean there's anything wrong with you; it'll just take you a different route, at a different pace to those who seem to have it all figured out (emphasis on the word 'seem'), to get that sense of contentment (which, not to go all Dr. Phil on you, is a pretty high aim in itself, never mind that thing they refer to as 'happiness'). Such is the experience of Kristen Bell's character here, the former valedictorian who goes through that whole coming of age thing a little later than she'd initially hoped. The big shot life in NYC was not how it looked on the postcards.
In her attempt to find what's missing, she decides to return to her childhood home in Conneticut and become a Lifeguard, much to the bemusement (and disgust) of those around her. 'Grow UP!' says one character who you just hope gets a dig square in the face. Romance, drama, humour and all other aspects of normal life ensues. The Lifeguard hits cinemas on August 30th and having impressed the masses at Sundance earlier this year, you can pen this one into your diary with confidence.