'First Daughter' reminiscent of 'Chasing Liberty'

By Eleanor O'Sullivan
Asbury Park (N.J.) Press

FIRST DAUGHTER (PG) Two Stars (Fair) Katie Holmes is the rambunctious daughter of the president in this film that looks suspiciously like Mandy Moore's "Chasing Liberty." Starring Katie Holmes, Michael Keaton and Margaret Colin. Directed by Forest Whitaker. 20th Century Fox.104 minutes.

Now there really is a movie called "First Daughter," about a brown-haired, post-adolescent daughter of a mild-mannered, weathered but still attractive president of the United States.

Mandy Moore starred in the first one and portrayed a girl aching for the other thing that freedom is just another word for (when you're under intense scrutiny around the clock): sex. She got it.

Katie Holmes stars in the second one, also portraying a girl aching for the same thing. I won't tell you if she gets it, but her pursuer (Marc Blucas) does blurt out, "You're looking for some action?!" He can't believe his good luck.

Those who saw the Moore vehicle will feel awfully deja vu-ish here, in terms of similar scenarios, styles, jokes at the expense of the president and a protagonist we're meant to believe is clueless about the demands of being a child of big-league politics. The first daughter here, an only child, virtually falls apart her first time away (at college in California) from her presidential parents. She can't take the pressure, despite, by her own admission, having enjoyed privacy last when she was in the womb.

Don't blame me, but Holmes' character, Samantha, is meant to be more Bush daughter than Clinton daughter in terms of her rebellious nature. She goes hog wild in a bar, under the influence, bumping and grinding in hot pants and big white boots on a bar. A New York tabloid follows Samantha everywhere, photographing her in many compromising positions.

Because of "Chasing Liberty," "First Daughter" suffers, not by comparison, but by being such a mirror image of what's gone before. Holmes, like Moore, is beautiful and perky, but she's a prisoner of a tired screenplay and uneventful direction (from Forest Whitaker).

Playing her parents, Michael Keaton is miscast but amusing now and then, and Margaret Colin (whom Holmes resembles greatly) has some tart line readings as Samantha's ambitious mother. Colin actually tells her daughter she'd better shape up or her father won't be re-elected. Think any other first daughter got that speech?

Rated PG for language, sexual situations and alcohol-related material.