Thanks much to Manders for sending us her review of "First Daughter" :)It is very heavy in the spoiler department, so be warned...
As an openly admitted critic of some of Katie's past films and the lack of her seemingly growing talent as an actress due to the various teen roles she took on during her run as Joey Potter on "Dawson's Creek", I wasn't expecting very much with "First Daughter." I had heard rumblings from contacts I knew that worked on the film that Forest Whitaker had actually made a really good film but I still wasn't convinced it was a movie I would want to sit down in a movie theatre and watch. Boy, was I wrong! This is Katie Holmes' second breakout performance (after "Pieces of April") and the one that should launch her career into more mature adult roles. This film has it all--lots of hilarious moments, romance and tears all rolled into one. I urge you not to miss this film when it's released into the theatres and is fun for all ages.
The movie opens with a montage of Samantha MacKenzie as an 8 year-old child catching frogs and having tea parties with the secret service agents continuing through her "awkward" teen years with a voice-over talking about a special young girl who loved to play and collect things. There is a scene that shows a 14-year-old Samantha standing with her parents as they first won the presidency where she's wearing braces and has the permed curly hair that is reminiscent of Chelsea Clinton when her father first won the White House. Melissa and Joan Rivers make a cameo appearance in the beginning of the movie when they talk about Samantha's faux paus as Sam watched from a window and takes off running along with her secret service men. It's finally revealed that Sam is the President's daughter and thus the movie finally takes off.
On the eve of Samantha's departure to Redmond University (which is said to be 3000 miles away from the White House which is why she decided to go there and not Georgetown like her father wanted her to), she tells her press secretary Liz how she wishes she could be just like any other college student who packed their own bags, says good-bye to her parents, grabs the keys to her car along with a cooler full of sandwiches (with the beer hidden under the sandwiches) but alas she knows that's not going to happen. In the end (at least in the version I saw) she gets her wish but will talk more in-depth about that later.
One of the big themes in the movie that is stressed is the relationship between Sam and her father and the film treats it extremely well. Sam has a routine with her father every night where she meets up with him after everyone else has gone to bed and they share a piece of chocolate cake while talking to each other and occasionally dancing with each other. There are some pretty funny moments during those scenes as the President talks about how much he will miss having her around and if you're a fan of Katie's, when she's bouncing down the stairs trying to beat her father to the White House kitchen, she is braless and perky if you catch my drift.
After a few scenes of her parents addressing the reporters on the lawn of the White House before leaving for California where Redmond is apparently supposed to be located, the first family arrives at the college where crowds of students and the school's band is waiting to greet them. One of Katie's funniest lines was when she looks at the band and says, "Anything but Hail To The Chief" and the doors open up and the band starts playing 'Hail to the Chief' and she sort of rolls her eyes. In the beginning she has four agents watching her every move but the two that she seems the closest to are Agents Dylan and Colvin (I think that's his name--he's the bald guy) and even tends to tease them whenever they're around her--especially Dylan since he doesn't talk at all and she teases him about how he needs to let others get a word in when they're talking to him. Dylan does do a lot of hand gestures and coughs when he wants something or doesn't approve of something Sam is doing (like for example, Sam was kicked out of her room by Mia when Mia had a guy in the room and so Sam goes and watches TV--all the late night hosts are talking about her so she ends up watching the Home Shopping Network and Dylan doesn't want to watch it so he coughs heavily a few times to get her attention until she changes it to football and then he smiles).
After her parents finally leave her, Sam gets the chance to meet her roommate Mia--Mia thought she was getting a redhead band member and not the president's daughter. Mia at first wants to get a new roommate until Sam convinces her to give it a shot since Mia will have extra security as well now. Mia jokes with the SS agents that maybe they can get them beer now and the bald-headed agent ( can't remember his name right now) says that "that's a negative and isn't going to happen" and Mia goes on to say that having SS agents may work to their benefit now and how the "bald-headed one is kind of cute" and he responds "yet again, not going to happen" which got a laugh from the audience.
There's a few scenes of Mia trying to get Sam to come party with the students as she's holed up inside talking to the teachers and deans of the university and later of Sam being kicked out of her room by Mia and ending up watching television with her agents. Two frat guys hunt Sam down and invite her to a bathing suit party they are having and tell her that bikinis are highly encouraged before leaving. Sam looks at the invitation and then asks Dylan and the bald-headed agent how they look in a bathing suit.
Flash forward to the frat party which lends itself to many hilarious moments. Katie is shown in an amazing blue bikini that shows her cleavage a great deal and the bottoms are very flattering to her as they have a little skirt thing to them (the skirt only goes to the bottom of the bikini bottoms) and she is wearing little white heels. Mia tells her she's going to show Sam how to make an entrance and jumps into the pool as Sam goes and sits down in a lounge chair by the pool. The band begins to play as four frat guys wearing red, white and blue suits start dancing around next to her while they sing about the "great country" and dancing butt-to-butt with each other. It's a really hilarious scene and I can't describe it as best as I could--you just have to see it for yourselves. The party ends quickly for Sam when one of the agents sees a student carrying a water gun and mistakes it for a real gun. Sam is taken from the party and she immediately heads to her father's campaign headquarters in her bikini (even makes the joke as she walks into the office, "Sorry I'm wearing next to nothing--I didn't have time to get my stuff at the party before coming here") as all the guys are gawking at her. She demands to speak to her father but he tells Liz that he's busy and that she can't have the agents reduced like she wants. She tells Liz to tell her father that she is going to quit college then and become a Hooters girl and that gets his attention and he comes out to talk to her--she tells him to remember how he was at her age and wanting to have fun with his friends and he finally relents as she's leaving--by this time, she has gotten a suit jacket to wear over her bikini and wears it back to the dorm. She is relieved and happy to see that she's not watched as much as before--there's a scene of her in her room where she opens the window and there's no agent looking out from the window next door and she just breathes a sigh of relief.
She's shown in a classroom as the teacher is trying to teach but everyone else is more concerned with watching her and not listening to the teacher until James saves her and brings the discussion back to the class by asking a question. She meets up with him after class and introduces herself. You can tell that Sam likes him already just from their first encounter.
Sam is hanging out with Mia at some college event where there's a huge waterslide down a hill and Mia convinces her to join in and Sam finally does so. As Sam slides down the hill, James falls into her and they head back up to go again. Mia, Sam and James all slide down together and as Mia gets up, her pants slip down and her thong is exposed as Sam is trying to get up herself. The next morning, Sam is woken up by Liz and the president who is upset that there is a huge front page picture of the three of them on the New York Post with Mia's thong exposed. Mia's response to this is how cool it is about them ending up on the front page.
After that, the press starts hounding Sam and she is shown having to run into her dorm as she's pounding on the door for Mia to open up (who doesn't) and so Sam runs into the nearest room that is open--which just happens to be James. She tells them that she thought this was the RA's room and he says that it is but the old RA couldn't handle all the pressure of having Sam on his floor so he was reassigned. James takes pity on Sam and tells her she can stay all she wants and after a while, he takes off his sweatshirt (shows his chest as Sam is just staring at it) and tells her to put it on--she does so and when he leaves the room, she starts sniffing it and quickly stops when he returns with a hat. They leave the room making it seem like Sam's still in the room and that he's leaving with his friend. They start running away from the university and end up at a little restaurant (which is actually at the Grove for those who live in LA) and she asks him to tell her something that she doesn't know about him and he starts rattling off all those facts that don't have anything having to do with himself and she calls him on it. (It's a pretty funny scene when they are throwing all these facts at one another). There's an older woman that asks for a picture with Sam and the woman comments how Sam is no longer gawky looking and how her breasts are so perky and developed now which embarrasses Sam. Sam and James leave and are walking down the street talking about him when the media spots them--they run into a movie theatre to escape and end up staying to watch the movie--James comments on how Sam is experiencing things for the first time and how happy she seems to be. He buys popcorn and candy and combines them together as she asks what he is doing---he has her taste the chocolately popcorn and she comments that it's disgusting but that she loves it. They end up back in his dorm room talking for most of the night about their favorite things--she's on his bed and he's on the floor. The next morning, she's standing outside his door with Mia trying to write a message to him on his message board but not sure what to say and a student says that he could tell the media what she just wrote (and erased) and she responds that she could have the FBI investigate all the porn he's downloaded and that shuts the kid up and Sam comments "it works everytime" which got a huge laugh. Mia grabs the pen and writes "James, Bonfire Friday night- 7 p.m. Be there. Sam."
It's the night of the bonfire and Sam keeps looking all over for James but doesn't see him. Mia sees her old crush in the audience and tells Sam about him and Sam asks if she likes this guy that much, why is she kissing all those other guys and Mia responds that she doesn't kiss the ones she really likes. Her crush comes over and says hi to Sam which pisses Mia off and she takes off--getting the wrong idea as her crush asks why Mia left as they were supposed to hang out together that night. Mia and Sam have it out in their room where Mia is hanging out with other students and Mia has drawn devil horns all over a family picture of Sam's.
The next morning, she is in the library where she fell asleep as James comes in and sits down on the table in front of her and tells her that he can't do this with her --he's trying to tell her something but she thinks it's because of him being her resident advisor. She lets it slip that she wasn't looking for anything serious--just for some action and his expression is priceless as he says "You were hoping for some action?" as he says that he needs some air and they need to get out of there--she goes and changes and they take off with each other and go to the Santa Monica Pier--she tells him that she feels like herself around him and he beats her at an arcade game and she's surprised that he didn't let her win like everyone else does and asks him to show her how to play the game. He helps her win a large stuffed Hello Kitty and later asks her about the charm bracelet--turns out that her father gave it to her and gets her a charm from every place they've been together. James makes her a charm to signify her new beginning as a college student as he walks her back to her room. They say good night to each other by her door and as he walks back to his, she turns around and calls his name before kissing him. Sam comes in and tells Mia that she's sorry about their fight and Mia takes Sam to another dorm room where Sam meets Mia's original roommate who proceeds to play "Hail To The Chief" and Mia says she couldn't be happier to have Sam as her roommate now.
To thank Mia and James for being her friends, she kidnaps them and flies them on Air Force One to a party the family is hosting and they make a stop at Vera Wang's for outfits (which is the pink dress she's shown wearing in many of the pictures from the film). She dances with James and introduces him to her parents and as they are leaving the event, she is stopped by the reporters. As she is talking to them, 2 cars come flying out of nowhere and hit her SUV--the agents take cover along with her and James picks her up and starts running through the back stairs of the event with her. As she gets in the car that will take her to safety, she's smiling but it soon fades as James pulls out a remote device and says that "lucky charms" is safe. She is crying as she returns to the White House and she tells her father to not go there and asks him what will happen to James and he says it's up to her and James was only trying to get in line to protect him. She says that James can keep his job protecting her and there is a scene with Mia and her where Mia says that Sam should make James jealous.
There's a montage of scenes now with James as one of her agents following her around and he's trying to apologize to her about his deception and a really funny scene of her showing up at the Health Services building for her "birth-control appointment" and having the nurse give her free condoms--she tells the nurse she's trying to make one of the agents jealous and the nurse doesn't believe her at first but Sam insists and so the nurse gives her a few more free packages--Sam makes the comment that she wants it to look more like spring break action as she grabs handfuls of condoms.
There's another really funny scene of Mia and Sam dressed up as Kid Rock and Pamela Anderson---Mia is Kid Rock and Sam is Pamela Anderson--white go-go boots, barely there jean shorts, blonde wig and big fuzzy pink hat and tattoo on her arm. She is meeting a guy named Frank there and gets extremely wasted. James says to the other agents they better get her out of there but the other agents say they can't step in until she harms herself or others. Sam and Frank get up to leave the bar but she stops when Ricky Martin's "La Vida Loca" begins playing and stands up on the bar and starts dancing on it. The guys are loving it as she is very flirty with them and even sticks dollar bills down her bra that she got from the guys--Mia tells the agents they need to get her down now and they refuse and James finally knocks out one of the guys who is leering at Sam and carries her kicking and screaming out of the bar. She tells him to put her down as he refuses--she keeps hitting his back and butt everytime he refuses but carries her all the way into her dorm room. She's passed out and so he tucks her in and then kisses her forehead--she wakes up and asks what that was for and he says he was only saying good-night. She sits up and wants to know why he didn't tell her and he doesn't want to get into it with her but says that he doesn't have that much to offer her.
The next morning, Mia is answering all the phone calls that are coming in as Sam's bar dance has made the headlines in all the newspapers and her father says that she has gone too far this time. While Mia is talking to everyone, Sam sees that a Star Magazine was slipped under the door and the main feature is on James "secretly servicing" her. She tries to find James but learns that he is no longer with her as his charge. Her mom soon arrives and tells her that Sam is leaving college and joining the campaign which Sam does so reluctantly. At one of the events, her dad tells her to cheer up and she tells him that she is there for him but that they need to treat her like an adult--after that, her father starts to and there is a scene where after he won the election, she's in bed and her father brings up a piece of chocolate cake and they talk about how much she liked James.
At the big celebration ball, she's in a gorgeous purple dress and her father asks to dance with her. She does so and then notices James standing off in the distance. The president nods at James and he comes over to dance with Sam. She asks what he is doing and he tells her dancing with her. At the end of the dance, he hands her a key with a purple rabbits foot and tells her that the car is ready for her complete with all of her demands when she leaves in the morning. Sam says good bye to James and runs off into another room. Both are looking wistful and both turn and run from the room they're separately in and meet up in the hallway--James kisses her with such passion and then she kisses him and she asks what he came back for since she was just coming back for her purse. She leaves and Dylan comes up to James and for the first time speaks and tells James that he hears Sam will be back for Spring Break and that this time to not fall in love with the one he's supposed to be protecting (which turns out to be the president). Sam heads outside and sees a yellow Volkswagen Bug and gets in and drives off.
All in all--a really good movie but the ending was too anticlimactic to see Sam just driving off after all the build-up the movie had with James and Sam.
