Poor lil rich Mandy Moore

It is difficult to imagine why many will want to see Chasing Liberty when there are interesting films like Lost In Translation around, but fans of singer-actress Mandy Moore and teens who want to have an easy outing may embrace the film.

For the more discriminating audiences, this is a futile chase, though it offers some gorgeous European locations.

Older viewers may find some elements of William Wyler's romantic comedy Roman Holiday about a princess on the run in this movie. Starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck, it was a model lesson in creating class entertainment. 

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There have been better, more successful films in this genre, including The Princess Diaries. Besides, Twentieth Century Fox will release First Daughter in a few months.   

Here, the story revolves Anna (Moore), the 18-year-old daughter of an American president (Mark Harmon). Tired of her protected life and being followed by the secret service (Jeremy Piven, Annabella Sciorria), she disappears in Prague, where she has accompanied her parents. She soon encounters a young man Ben Calder (Matthew Goode), whose real identity will not be known to her immediately.

But her father had forseen her adventurism and had planted Ben, the secrert service man. Even as the couple go from one grand place to another, they cannot be away from the distant, but watchful, eyes of the secret service agents. Conveniently, though, the secret service always lags behind in catching up with the runaway couple.

Anna wants to attend the Love Parade in Berlin, but Ben and she take the wrong train and end up in Venice, where they are robbed by a traveller. Their journey is made more complicated now, but they keep forging on, offering us colourful visuals of Italian, Austrian and German landscape.

Meanwhile, the president and his wife (Caroline Godall) are quarelling about their daughter. And you start wondering if you can see a couple in the film that is more at peace.

What is more troubling is that the film misses the opportunity to turn Anna into a mature person. She travels a lot but her mind just doesn't open up enough.

Warm romance and smart comedy could have made the film fairly tolerable.

CREDITS
Cast: Mandy Moore, Mark Harmon, Jeremy Piven, Sciorra and Matthew Goode
Director: Andy Cadiff
Writers: Derek Guiley, David Schneiderman
Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes
Rating: PG-13 for sexual content and brief nudity.
Distributor: Warner Bros