Chasing Liberty

Being the president’s daughter can never be easy. And definitely not the most enviable position to be in on the planet. Especially if the President goes by the acronymn of POTUS – President of the United States, Mr. James Foster (Mark Harmon) – The most powerful man in the world. Lets make this worse. The president’s daughter is an 18 year old!!!! Just about the time when you are hormones are on overdrive even naturally. How can one make any effort to constrict them with rules and regulations and Uniformed Secret Service Agents???? Its only going to lead to a situation where the pressure cooker explodes in your face and that will not be a pretty sight for sure.

Ana Foster (Mandy Moore) is going through just this kind of teenage crisis. She cannot go more than 5 feet away from any surveillance whatsoever. And the guys who are responsible with the surveillance are quite fearsome who you would want to run away from at the first available opportunity. But they are good at their job. That is till the president has to visit Europe – specifically France. Ana meets up with a friend Michelle (Beatrice Rosen) – coloured hair, pierced tongue, tattoos et al. Frustrated with her 24 x 7 coverage, she seeks Michelle’s help to escape from the clutches of the secret service and explore Paris and Europe on her own. Funnily enough, she succeeds. Not the best campaign for the United States Secret Service. But…. Not to worry, we have our plain clothed agents – Cynthia Morales (Anabella Sciorra) and Alan Weiss (Jeremy Piven) who have always been on the job. US SS gets back its reputation thanks to our under cover agents who are on their toes.

And they also manage to locate special agent Ben Calder (Matthew Goode) who is in the same area and has just finished his current assignment. So the President in all his wisdom assigns Ben the task of befriending his daughter and not giving her even a whiff of him being a special agent. What the president does not factor in and is not expecting is the impact of raging teenage hormones. Like Salman Khan proclaimed in Maine Pyaar Kiya – “Ek jawaan ladka aur ek jawaan ladki kabhi dost nahin ho sakte” (A young boy and a young girl can never be “Just Friends”). But President Foster obviously hadn’t seen our Indian block buster from the early 90s and hence would have to eventually pay the price for his oversight I guess.

Director Andy Cadiff is a consistent guy. He has consistently directed TV Series. Why did he think that he would be good at directing a full fledged 70 mm is beyond me. But then, everyone is pardoned one moment of insanity I guess. Thankfully, it was his last moment to date. But can’t say the same about Mandy Moore. She has been, is and will continue to be one of the most awful actors to have ever hit the screen. There is just no emotion that comes up on screen. Just sheer frustration of the viewer onto the screen. Thank God that she is at least reasonable looking. The only saving grace would be the good looking Matthew Goode – purely because he is good looking. Nothing worth writing home about from this RomCom. 4 on 10 is the verdict.