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First Daughter

2004, Movie, PG, 90 mins

First Daughter: Review

FIRST DAUGHTER
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Director Forest Whitaker's romantic comedy with a political backdrop starts off strongly, thanks to its well-cast leads — Katie Holmes, in full-on adorable mode and buff Buffy the Vampire Slayer alum Marc Blucas — but its predictable conflict (particularly to anyone who's seen the Mandy Moore showcase CHASING LIBERTY) and plodding pace ensure lukewarm exit polls. Teenage Samantha (Holmes) is desperate to begin her college career so she can escape the watchful eye of her parents (Michael Keaton, Margaret Colin) and dreams of driving alone cross-country to school in California from her Washington, D.C., home. Unfortunately, that's out of the question; not only are her parents overprotective, but they happen to be the President and First Lady of the United States, which means Samantha has a host of secret-service agents eyeballing her every move. While she loves many of the perks of being the Commander-in-Chief's kid — big house, lots of traveling — growing up in the spotlight has been difficult — what teenager really wants her wardrobe choices to be the subject of public scrutiny? And blending in at school is hard enough for a freshman without her family being greeted by an entire marching band playing "Hail to the Chief." Samantha's spunky roommate, Mia (Amerie Rogers), does her best to get the first daughter to loosen up and enjoy her collegiate experience, including frat parties. But her guardian agents, Bock (Michael Milhoan) and Dylan (Dwayne Adway), are prone to panicking and cramping her style. Fortunately, Samantha's cute and funny resident advisor, James (Blucas), finds a way to sneak her out of the dorm for some typical dating fun. They begin to fall for each other, but when the press gets hold of the story the situation quickly spirals out of control; surprising secrets are revealed, and it doesn't help that it's an election year. Whitaker does his best to add tension and drama to this lightweight film, and while he manages to drum up some sympathy for poor little rich girl Samantha, even the slightest bit of sturm und drang seems out of sync with the fundamentally silly premise. The nearly laughable "once upon a time …" narration that opens and closes the film only makes a muddled mess messier, but Keaton and Holmes have some sweet father-daughter moments and the supporting cast gives its all. leave a comment --Angel Cohn
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