Chasing Liberty

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Not to be confused with First Daughter, a film starring Katie Holmes, also released in 2004 and with a very similar plot.

Chasing Liberty

Directed by	Andy Cadiff
Produced by	Broderick Johnson Andrew A. Kosove David Parfitt
Written by	Derek Guiley David Schneiderman
Starring	Mandy Moore Matthew Goode Jeremy Piven Mark Harmon
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	9 January 2004
Running time	111 min
Language	English
Budget	$23,000,000 USD (est.)
IMDb profile

Chasing Liberty is a 2004 romantic comedy about the American President's daughter. It was directed by Andy Cadiff and starred Mandy Moore and Matthew Goode.

1 Plot
2 Production details
3 Cast
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Plot

Anna Foster (Mandy Moore) is the daughter of the President of the United States and First Lady, James (Mark Harmon) and Michelle Foster (Caroline Goodall).

When a hassle of Secret Service agents ruins a first date, Anna demands some freedom. Her dad agrees to send only two agents with Anna and Gabrielle La Clare (Beatrice Rosen) to a concert when Anna goes to Prague with her parents. A sexy new look for Anna causes her father to renege. When Anna discovers the concert is filled with agents, Gabrielle helps Anna elude her protectors. Outside the concert, Anna meets Ben Calder (Matthew Goode), and asks him to drive her to escape the agents. Anna goes to a bar with Ben and proceeds to get drunk. Unknown to Anna, Ben is with the Secret Service, and tells agents Alan Weiss (Jeremy Piven) and Cynthia Morales (Annabella Sciorra) where Anna is. The President orders the three agents to have Ben guard Anna without telling her who he really is, to give her an illusion of freedom with a guarantee of safety. Believing herself free of her guards for the first time in years, Anna jumps into the Vltava River naked, mistaking it for the Danube, and Ben has to fish her out (he stays clothed). Weiss and Morales buy the camera from someone taking pictures of the skinny-dipping Anna. Anna and Ben climb a rooftop to watch an opera being shown in a plaza, where Anna eventually falls asleep with Ben guarding her, and Weiss and Morales watching from another roof.

The next morning, Anna calls her parents to avoid getting into further trouble with them. Knowing she is safe, her father is initially indulgent, and Anna is about to return, but his tone changes when he is shown the photos of her nude in the river. The First Lady, however, asks, "What happened to 'let freedom ring'?" (his earlier line when he decided to let her stay out with Ben). Anna is outraged at her dad's sudden imperious tone, and at finding out he traced her call. She decides to meet Gabrielle at the Love Parade in Berlin and return to her parents right before the plane trip home. Ben goes with her on the train, where they meet Scotty McGruff (Martin Hancock), a flighty romantic obsessed with Six Million Dollar Man stickers and the interconnectivity of the world. Through him, the two learn that they've boarded a Venice-bound to leave the phone dangling when he realizes he can no longer see Anna. He finds her and McGruff, and the three explore Venice - until McGruff steals their wallets. Ben is about to tell the cafe they can not pay, when Anna is recognized and races off to avoid being identified as the First Daughter. Ben follows, of course, and they tell a story of marrying against Anna's parents' wishes to get a gondola ride from a kind-hearted gondolier, Eugenio (Joseph Long). Ben kisses Anna during the ride to hide her from the cafe staff's sight. Since they have no place to stay, Eugenio invites them to his and his mother Maria's (Miriam Margolyes) house. That night, thinking the kiss meant that Ben cares for her, Anna offers herself to him. To dissuade her, Ben is disingenuous and harsh. Anna finally gets in the bed alone, while Ben lies on the floor.

The next day, Eugenio drives them to the Austrian border, as Weiss and Morales show up at Maria's looking for the gondolier with whom Anna and Ben were last seen. Maria tells them that Anna and Ben are married, which is reported to Anna's parents. Upset that Ben rejected her, Anna leads him on a chase through the Austria countryside, until he finds her ready to bungee jump off a bridge. They also meet McGruff again there and get most of their money back. McGruff says he needed the money to find a mystery girl he has been chasing all over Europe. The three spend the night at the bungee group's camp. Anna is so angry with Ben that she implies she will accept one of the bungee jumper's offer to share his tent that night. This forces Ben to confess his attraction to her. They kiss and Ben's repaired phone rings. Ben tosses it aside and they spend the night together.

A subplot involving Weiss and Morales (Anna's two secret agents) is also in the story. Weiss makes snide comments about Morales, even once asking her to strip naked. Morales then asks him what kind of women want his "construction-break" attitude. Weiss suddenly treats her coldly after this, until they make up later on. Weiss tells Morales that he hasn't had a girlfriend since his hairline receded. Morales tells him that he should get it cut short because some women like that. Later, Morales sees that Weiss has cut his hair and she says it is sexy. He kisses her. He says sorry and pulls away. He begins to walk away, but she grabs his arm and kisses him back.

At the parade Anna is discovered after she learns Ben is actually an agent. Ben carries her to the helicopter, and she is flown back home. Anna visits Ben at a theater and the two reconcile.

[edit] Production details

The scenes involving the White House were in fact filmed at Hylands House in Chelmsford, Essex, England, which resembles the White House. Blueprints of the White House were also used to create a digital replica, which helped make it seem real. These blueprints caused the director some trouble when traveling to Washington DC, as his suitcase also contained source material about the Oval Office, among other things.

The storyline was directly inspired by Chelsea Clinton, who was photographed trying to blend in with other students at a Stanford basketball game.^[1] The film received a lukewarm response from critics ^[2], but appealed to its target audience, and won three Teen Choice Awards.

Another film, released later in 2004 called First Daughter starring Katie Holmes, had a similar plot. An early working title for Chasing Liberty had been First Daughter.^{[citation needed]}