E-Mail This Article to a Friend FIRST DAUGHTER

Close on the heels of Mandy Moore in Chasing Liberty comes Katie Holmes as the president’s daughter looking for a little freedom as she starts college. Directed by Forest Whitaker from a story by the actor Jerry O’Connell and Jessica Bendinger, First Daughter is more like one of those feel-good ABC family movies than a feature film. Next to the Bush twins, Holmes, smiling and mugging as the always selfless Samantha Mackenzie, seems positively quaint. Samantha’s idea of teenage rebellion is giving the Secret Service the slip so she can . . . go out for a slice of pizza. Only after falling for the cute agent assigned to protect her (a blandly sturdy Marc Blucas) does she follow the advice of her drama-queen roommate (Amerie Rogers) and go wild in a misguided attempt to make him jealous. Whitaker seems to be trying for a modern fairy-tale vibe mixed with some lame girl-power pronouncements about being yourself, but it’s hard to get your message across if you can’t get the audience to pay attention. (104 minutes)