Earlier in the year, Chasing Liberty followed the president's rebellious daughter (Mandy Moore) as she evaded her ever-present Secret Service handlers, got her first taste of love and freedom, and blossomed into a wiser, more self-possessed young woman. By contrast, First Daughter features a president's child (Katie Holmes) who's slightly older, considerably taller, and a brunette. Otherwise, they're exactly the same movie, right down to a third-act twist that throws a blanket over the star's newfound liberation. In both cases, the screenwriters must have thought about what it's like to grow up under such intense scrutiny and used the first things that popped into their heads. With Secret Service guards as her only companions and friends, a president's offspring is bound to be lonely, romantically inexperienced, and primed for reckless adventure, whether that involves seeing Europe from the back of a moped or underage boozing. Amazingly, politics is the last thing on the mind of a president's child, because both films prefer to treat their protagonists like fairy-tale royalty, a couple of princesses acting out.
A nonpartisan amalgam of Chelsea Clinton and Jenna Bush, Holmes survives an awkward adolescence and heads for a West Coast college (Chelsea), where she's eager to tear it up at pool parties and local bars, even if the resulting headlines embarrass her father (Jenna). Spurred on by shrill roommate Amerie Rogers, Holmes immediately sheds her stiff pantsuit for a bikini and pumps, but her overzealous guards ruin her chance to be ogled by frat guys. After President Michael Keaton agrees to lighten her security detail, Holmes pursues her romantic feelings for a fellow student (Marc Blucas), but her wild streak sabotages a critical campaign year, costing her father three points in the polls.
Blander than a recycled stump speech, First Daughter plays into a little girl's fantasy of being born into luxury and importance. In this world, Air Force One turns into a dream house of manicures and widescreen TVs, and every presidential dinner or charity event becomes a debutante ball. Not wishing to alienate anyone, the film works hard to make sure Holmes' Republicrat father doesn't take a position on anything, but it seems strange that on a college campus in an election year, politics have no effect on Holmes' everyday life. All of this squirmy equivocation results in some of the strangest campaign protest signs ever conceived ("Tax Credit = Caring"), but it sends a bad message to the film's young audience that the daughter of a world leader needn't be more than a vapid bikini-stuffer.