Anna Foster (Moore)
just wants to be herself. However, being the President's daughter,
this is a tad difficult when Secret Service agents are always
around and ready to pounce at the first sign of trouble. When she
discovers that her father has betrayed her trust by not limiting
the number of agents to watch over her when she goes to a club,
she ditches the agents and goes on the run with Ben (Goode), a
photographer with a secret.
CRITIQUE
Chasing
Liberty is a great film to
watch on a date. It has all the qualities of a great date movie:
attractive leads; intimate, date-like situations; and a happy
ending. It's not ground breaking, mind you, and no one is going to
leave the film feeling enlightened, but it is a nice, sweet film.
The film's biggest flaw
is that, while it is sold as a romantic comedy, it's not really that
funny. There are attempts at humor, but they never rise beyond a
chuckle or two. The film works nice as a romantic drama. I guess I
would say drama, although the film is never overly dramatic. The film,
in some ways, exists to cash in on
Mandy Moore's appeal to teenage
audiences and it does a good job. It's also never mean spirited or
obnoxious; it's nothing more than a pleasant bit of fluff.
So how is Mandy Moore? I
never saw A Walk to Remember or How to Deal so I can't
judge her previous performances to this one, but I have this thing
with musicians and acting. For the most part, I feel that they should
stick to music and leave acting to professionals. However, Mandy Moore
doesn't fall into this category. Her performance in Chasing Liberty,
while not the greatest performance I've ever seen, is not bad. She is
pleasant to watch and is able to hold a scene, something most
musicians cannot do.
Matthew Goode is fun in
his first starring role, however, I found myself wondering why Anna
would put up with him during a few moments in the film. His
performance is okay, but, the moment we learn his character's secret,
we (the audience) should start wondering why Anna can't see through
his act.
But, like I said, this
is a date movie. Throwing too much thought into a film like this would
make you a killjoy. All that matters is watching to see if the boy and
girl end up together at the end. As long as they do or don't (and
there had better be a damn good reason as to why they don't) that's
all we need to know.
THE VIDEO
The transfer is
standard. The colors never seem muted, nor do they seem
particularly enhanced. The transfer looks nice, and that's all.
THE AUDIO
The film is
presented in Dolby Surround 5.1, in both English and French, and
is nothing to speak of. Almost nothing in the film requires
surround sound, and the ambient location sound does not give us
the impression of being there.
THE EXTRAS
Mandy Moore &
Matthew Goode Commentary: The two spend most of the film
talking about how good each other looks in a scene and drop little
recounts of how they felt during particular scenes. Not really
worth listening to if you're looking for real information about
the film.
Deleted Scenes:
The deleted scenes are production dailies. The scenes are lumped
together on a single track and were cut for good reason.
Gag Reel:
This reel is full of alternate takes from most of the scenes
featuring actor Jeremy Piven.
Passport to
Europe:
Don't bother with this one. It's a mix between a travelogue, a series
of conversations, and a "making of" but it never comes together to
interest in any way.
Rounding out the extras
is the entire concert performance of "The Seed" by The Roots as
seen in the film, as well as the film's trailer.
FINAL THOUGHTS
It's date fluff. Rent it
and watch it with your loved one.
