Sometimes life knocks you down, you have to move back in with your parents and get a job as a lifeguard. Okay, so maybe that’s not the trajectory most trouble young folks take, but in “The Lifeguard,” it’s the path that Leigh, played by Kristen Bell, takes in the feature debut from writer/director Liz W. Garcia (“Wonderfalls,””Cold Case“).
The story follows a young woman on the edge of 30 who somehow decides to give up her reporter job in New York (really?), moves back home to Connecticut, puts on a red swimsuit and then hooks up with a teenager. Yeah, it’s one of those stories. We have to say, we missed it when it premiered at Sundance earlier this year and buzz didn’t really seem to go one way or the other on this one, which seems like it will milk a lot of emotion out of people wading in water. But hey, Martin Starr is kicking around, so it’s a quasi-“Party Down” reunion. Sort of.
“The Lifeguard” opens on August 30th.