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First DaughterA presidential daughter runs away from the White House, only to fall in love with the bodyguard her father has assigned to her protection. Does this sound like a good idea for a movie? Hollywood clearly thought so, having made two versions of the same tale and releasing them both in a matter of months.
Here in the UK we were spared Mandy Moore's Chasing Liberty, Warner Bros wisely sending it straight to DVD after it tanked at the US box office. Alas, we're still being afflicted with First Daughter, a cheesy vehicle for 'Dawson's Creek' cutie Katie Holmes that plays like The Princess Diaries starring Chelsea Clinton. (Confusingly, the Mandy Moore vehicle was known as 'First Daughter' during its production.)
Bright, beautiful and a patriot to boot, Samantha Mackenzie (Holmes) has selflessly stood behind her father (Keaton) throughout his first term as leader of the free world. But as re-election looms, it's time for her to follow her own dreams: namely, by heading off to college like any ordinary teenage girl. Unfortunately Sam is anything but ordinary, and her attempts to fit in with her new classmates only highlight how closeted and pampered her existence has been.
Help comes in the handsome shape of James (Blucas), a graduate student who refreshingly treats Sam like any other girl. James, however, is far from just any other boyfriend, and a shocking discovery makes her question everything she thought she knew about life, love and growing up.
Like a teenage version of Rob Reiner's The American President, Forest Whitaker's saccharine-sweet fantasy desperately wants us to root for and empathise with its impossibly perfect heroine. The problem is that it's tough to feel a lot of sympathy for a girl who can summon Air Force One any time she fancies popping back home for the weekend, not to mention have her bodyguards rough up anyone who dares to cross her.
Holmes can be an appealing presence on screen; she was memorable in the 2003 indie Pieces Of April. Here, though, her character is so fundamentally clueless, prissy and selfish that you're almost wishing she'll end up on the wrong end of a sniper's bullet.
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