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CHASING LIBERTY
by Peter Sobczynski

January 9, 2004

(out of 4 stars)

FILM CREDITS: Starring: Mandy Moore, Matthew Goode, Mark Harmon, Jeremy Piven, Annabella Sciorra
Directed by: Andy Cadiff. MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual content and brief nudity. Distributor: Warner Bros

"Chasing Liberty" is a teen-themed romantic comedy that starts off with something relatively rare for the genre-a decent initial idea. However, this idea is almost immediately tossed aside for another rehash of the kind of situations that haven't been
seen onscreen since...well, since that Lizzie McGuire movie. This is a shame because, had it stuck to its guns, this could have been a pleasant diversion instead of just another dreary January slog that will fade from memory quicker than my brief marriage to Britney Spears.

Speaking of pop princesses, "Chasing Liberty" stars Mandy Moore as Anna Foster, an eighteen-year-old girl with the typical adolescent crises-she wants to hang out with boys and go to raves and such things but her dad (Mark Harmon) is too
overprotective. The twist, as you no doubt know by now, is that Daddy is actually the President of the United States and as a result, her every move is constantly monitored by the army of Secret Service agents that even trail along on her dates. In fact, the film starts off with one such disastrous outing when a school friend reaches into his coat to pull out a camera and is immediately subdued by agents. Afterwards, Anna wails to her father, "I'm gonna die before I get to third base!"

Okay, this may not be the most bracingly original premise for a movie (in fact, not only is there another first daughter film on the horizon, starring Katie Holmes and cunningly titled "First Daughter", but it was actually supposed to come out this weekend as well until Fox finally blinked and moved it) but it is one that has a lot of premise. There is a lot of material to be mined from the notion of a girl going through all the traumas of adolescence in front of the eyes of the world-most girls only have to worry about getting mocked by their peers and not by gag writers and political opponents. (Remember when pill-popper Rush Limbaugh announced on his TV show that he had a photo of the White House dog and put up a picture of 13-year-old Chelsea?) And with someone like Mandy Moore, who has grown up in the public eye in the last few years and has found her personal life discussed endlessly in the media, playing the part, I had hoped that some genuine insight could have be made into such a phenomenon.

Inevitably, it takes "Chasing Liberty" about fifteen minutes to abandon that notion to make just another bit of fluff. While in Prague with her parents, Anna manages to give her Secret Service agents (Jeremy Piven and Anabella Sciorra) the slip and plans to journey off to Berlin for the annual Love Parade rave. To assist her in her getaway, she enlists the aide of hunky motorcycle-riding stud Ben (Matthew Goode), who doesn't seem to recognize her. What she doesn't know (and what we almost immediately learn) is that Ben is actually yet another agent assigned to protect her and the President assigns him to stick with her so she can have a well-supervised taste of "freedom". Inevitably, Anna falls for Ben and Ben does likewise, while trying to keep her from discovering his true identity.

You will no doubt recognize the basic plot of "Chasing Liberty" as being more than a little similar to the Audrey Hepburn classic "Roman Holiday"-there is even a long sequence in which Anna and Ben take the wrong train for no other reason than so they
can wind up in Venice (which I assume was as close as director Andy Cadiff could come to Rome without incurring a lawsuit). Of course, time have changed a little bit since then. Instead of putting their hands inside strange holes in the wall, Anna and Ben bungee-jump off a bridge and one of their traveling companions is a pothead whose philosophy is expressed solely through Six Million Dollar Man stickers. Oh, and while Hepburn's character was resolutely chaste throughout, Anna is more than hot-to-trot. Early on, she goes skinny-dipping in the Danube and later on, when they pose as newlyweds to get a room in Venice, she offers herself up to her unknown protector. (Pervs thrilled that "Chasing Liberty" has been rated PG-13 for "brief nudity" should be warned-the body-doubling in these scenes is so awkward that it almost seems like a joke.) This slightly salacious material (while nothing much in the grand scheme of things, it does come as a bit of a surprise in a film basically marketed as a fantasy for little girls) seems to have been put into the film for no other reason than to reposition Mandy Moore into a slightly more adult light. Always the most demure of the current crop of female teen-pop sensations, watching her doing such things as beginning to explain the fringe benefits of tongue-piercing or going through a government-issue deflowering is a
little disconcerting-sort of like noticing that your best friend's little sister suddenly got hot. Though the film doesn't give her much to do, she is charming enough and whatever energy it manages to muster is due to her efforts. (By comparison, Goode makes such a negligible impression that you spend half the movie waiting for the real suitor to show up until you grudgingly realize that he is it.)

"Chasing Liberty" is a drag but, to be fair, it is a relatively inoffensive drag that is far too nondescript to really get upset about. However, if teens (who, face it, are the only people who are going to pay to see this) are really that starved for entertainment this weekend, perhaps they can save a few bucks and just rent a movie instead. May I suggest a double bill of "How to Deal"-Moore's previous film-a reasonably smart romantic comedy that attempted to deal with real situations-and "Roman Holiday"?

-- PETER SOBCZYNSKI

Copyright © 2004 Peter Sobczynski
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While the views expressed by Peter Sobczynski do not necessarily reflect the views of Criticdoctor.com, the Critic Doctor will occasionally examine Mr. Sobczynski's film reviews to bring forth an honest examination of those views expressed.