Samantha "Sam" Mackenzie (Katie Holmes) is the First Daughter of President John Mackenzie (Michael Keaton) who prepares to leave home for college while still dealing with the presence of Secret Service in her life during an election year. As Sam struggles to adapt to college life and escape the limelight, she falls for her RA James (Marc Blucas) as events soon align that Sam must overcome.
First Daughter is a 2004 romantic dramedy and one of two First Daughter related projects released that year alongside Chasing Liberty. Despite beginning development prior to Chasing Liberty, First Daughter was released several months after Chasing Liberty. Directed by Forest Whitaker who'd previously directed the successful (if not critically well-regarded) Waiting to Exhale and Hope Floats, the film was negatively received by critics who called it inferior to the middlingly reviewed Chasing Liberty and also proved to be a box office bomb earning $10 million against a $30 million budget. While Chasing Liberty was just undemanding date night fodder that owed more than a few debts to Roman Holiday, First Daughter is chemistry free as a romance, laugh free as a comedy, and dramatically inert.
From the opening intro where narration provided by Forest Whitaker sets the story up as though it's a fairy tale, the film fails at establishing a consistent tone for itself and creates already shaky foundations for itself. I don't think Katie Holmes is necessarily to blame for this material as she's only working with what's been given, but in comparison to Chasing Liberty's handling of the First Daughter subject, Holmes feels like she's struggling with understanding a character who simultaneously exists in a world of Fairy Tale fantasy and real world unwanted tabloid and media attention creating a "no-man's land" of a character that doesn't fully satisfy either side of that equation. Marc Blucas is just an absolute blank as a leading man and there's so little chemistry between him and Holmes that the first kiss is shot from the back of Blucas' head as an indicator that even Whitaker knows there's no chemistry. But I think the biggest issues aside from its floundering comedy and lack of chemistry comes from a reveal halfway through the film that makes Michael Keaton and Margaret Colin's President and First Lady MacKenzie absolutely irredeemable as characters in a way the movie doesn't seem to understand. The reveal is very similar to the setup in Chasing Liberty (except played for drama) and while I had my problems with the execution at least the film acknowledged both in character and delivery that what was done was not a good thing. In First Daughter's case it bends backwards over itself to try and justify President MacKenzie's actions and he and the First Lady only do further actions involving their campaign that only further make them irredeemable.
I did not like First Daughter at all. While the cast are clearly trying to do what they can, there's no saving this movie. As a romance there's a lack of chemistry and passion, as a comedy the humor is very hackneyed, and as a drama it alters between being inert or in some cases unintentionally petty or malicious.
First Daughter is a 2004 romantic dramedy and one of two First Daughter related projects released that year alongside Chasing Liberty. Despite beginning development prior to Chasing Liberty, First Daughter was released several months after Chasing Liberty. Directed by Forest Whitaker who'd previously directed the successful (if not critically well-regarded) Waiting to Exhale and Hope Floats, the film was negatively received by critics who called it inferior to the middlingly reviewed Chasing Liberty and also proved to be a box office bomb earning $10 million against a $30 million budget. While Chasing Liberty was just undemanding date night fodder that owed more than a few debts to Roman Holiday, First Daughter is chemistry free as a romance, laugh free as a comedy, and dramatically inert.
From the opening intro where narration provided by Forest Whitaker sets the story up as though it's a fairy tale, the film fails at establishing a consistent tone for itself and creates already shaky foundations for itself. I don't think Katie Holmes is necessarily to blame for this material as she's only working with what's been given, but in comparison to Chasing Liberty's handling of the First Daughter subject, Holmes feels like she's struggling with understanding a character who simultaneously exists in a world of Fairy Tale fantasy and real world unwanted tabloid and media attention creating a "no-man's land" of a character that doesn't fully satisfy either side of that equation. Marc Blucas is just an absolute blank as a leading man and there's so little chemistry between him and Holmes that the first kiss is shot from the back of Blucas' head as an indicator that even Whitaker knows there's no chemistry. But I think the biggest issues aside from its floundering comedy and lack of chemistry comes from a reveal halfway through the film that makes Michael Keaton and Margaret Colin's President and First Lady MacKenzie absolutely irredeemable as characters in a way the movie doesn't seem to understand. The reveal is very similar to the setup in Chasing Liberty (except played for drama) and while I had my problems with the execution at least the film acknowledged both in character and delivery that what was done was not a good thing. In First Daughter's case it bends backwards over itself to try and justify President MacKenzie's actions and he and the First Lady only do further actions involving their campaign that only further make them irredeemable.
I did not like First Daughter at all. While the cast are clearly trying to do what they can, there's no saving this movie. As a romance there's a lack of chemistry and passion, as a comedy the humor is very hackneyed, and as a drama it alters between being inert or in some cases unintentionally petty or malicious.