"First Daughter" stars Katie Holmes as the president's sheltered daughter Samantha Mackenzie. She is her parents' princess, but has only ever been a politician's daughter. Now, at age 18, Sam wants nothing more than to go off on her own for her college years, but convincing her parents (Michael Keaton and Margaret Colin) to lessen her personal security is another matter entirely.
At her made-up California college, Sam encounters the customary Secret Service-related issues (not enough privacy and too much attention) and demands lower security. In a general, slightly embarrassing way, she meets her dream guy, James (Marc Blucas). He is the RA on her floor, and, naturally, the only one who seems to treat her like a real person. With James and her roommate Mia's help, Sam becomes as "normal" a girl as possible in her situation.
The dialogue is weak at best, relying on clich?s for laughs. For example, the Secret Service agents interrupt a frat pool party and Sam has to march into her father's campaign office in a bikini, prompting her father to joke, "I don't negotiate with people in swimwear."
Director Forest Whitaker tries to pass the movie off as a modern-day fairy tale, giving Sam tiaras, decoys and her Prince Charming, but it doesn't work. It only serves to make the movie that much more corny.
The smaller plot points are stale; when James takes off his sweatshirt for Sam to wear to fool the press, his shirt underneath conveniently rides up to show his toned stomach. Then they go to a carnival and James has to reach around Sam in that forced romantic way to teach her how to use a water gun. Later she tries to make James jealous by going for birth control, dating other guys and getting drunk.
Overall, the cons outweigh the pros of this movie. Everything in guilty pleasure romantic comedies isn't there. There's minimal witty dialogue and there's only a handful of laughs at Sam's petulant actions. There is a little chemistry between Holmes and Blucas during the emotional scenes, but the comparisons to Mandy Moore's far superior presidential daughter film "Chasing Liberty" are unavoidable.
Honestly, one would expect better from Holmes, who is a veteran of art films like "Pieces of April" and "The Singing Detective." She usually chooses wonderful movies that are original and actually worth seeing. One can only wonder why she would stoop to this level. This is a movie for an up-and-coming teenage actress who would go for anything because she needs a career break. Holmes is 26.
As for Blucas, he did the best he could in his cookie-cutter boy-toy role. As characters go, his James was as one-dimensional as you get and barely even added something to the storyline - and he's the love interest.
In the end, if you want to see a good movie about the president's kid, go for something a little bit better, like the Sinbad comedy "First Kid" or "Chasing Liberty." Just avoid "First Daughter"
