Film Reviews

First Daughter

• Rating:
• Director: Forest Whitaker.
• Starring: Katie Holmes, Marc Blucas, Michael Keaton, Margaret Colin, Lela Rochon Fuqua.
• Details: US/ 97 mins/ (12A).

Katie Holmes gets lost in this syrupy fairytale romance that borrows liberally from Cinderella with a cursory nod towards Chelsea Clinton. Holmes plays the impossibly wholesome Samantha Mackenzie, the only daughter of the sitting president of the United States (Michael Keaton). Having lived her life in the spotlight, Samantha is sick of being America's sweetheart and just wants to be like any other teenager and go to college, meet cute boys and drink the odd beer. But when you're the president's daughter, doing what all the other kids do isn't always possible. So as soon as a standard issue sassy African-American roommate is introduced, Samantha tries to enjoy her college days as best she can. Stupendously dull, First Daughter is one of those films which is resolutely pitched at a teenage demographic, a grouping one would suspect that care nothing about logical plotting, believable characters or interesting dialogue. Or at least that's what the writers of First Daughter would have you believe. Predictable and exceedingly formulaic, the film fatally fails to place the characters in anything resembling an interesting light, ensuring that their journey lacks any sort of moral weight or conviction. It's slickly delivered, but the best that can be said for First Daughter is that it's reflective of its star - pretty yet vacant.

Review by Garreth Murphy