This is the time of year for "quality" flicks to be clogging up the big screen, the meaty parts for serious actors and actresses, the weighty topics, the movies of substance. So of course, Angie, Kristin and I went to see Chasing Liberty today. Behold, the power of cheese.
For those not up on your teenybopper flicks, this is the story of a girl who decides to break away from her parents and have a little fun on a family trip to Prague. As she is the daughter of the President of the United States, wackiness ensues. She hooks up with a mysterious stranger who is not what he seems... but as this is a feel-good teen romantic comedy, he's not a serial killer, lecherous fratboy or terrorist mastermind. Nope, he's a gorgeous secret service angent -- with a British accent! And a motorbike! And he's just dreamy but oh-so respectful of her as a person, and he can't act on his burgeoning love for the madcap First Daughter because her father, the Prez, has decided to give her the illusion of freedom while she's actually being protected! Whoo-hoo! But, but, he lies to her, so how can she ever trust again?
Yeah. You get the idea.
This has all the requisite ingredients for a political teenybopper dramady type thing: Skanky French chick? Check. Wacky Englishman? Check. Kooky, free-spirited daugther who's still a good girl underneath? Check. Exotic locales? Check. Huge parties? Check. Hunky, amorous Germans? Check. A goat in the road? Check. A disaster with money? Check. A mysterious ability to cross borders despite the fact that passports were stolen along with the money? Check. No actual mention of terrorism or why the President may be reluctant to let his daughter get lost in the seething mass of humanity that is the Berlin Love Parade? Check. Understanding parental commisseration? Check. Wacky Secret Service Agents blending in with the hip kids? Check. And uplifting closing, featuring Nessun Dorma from Turnadot? Check.
By the way -- can we put a moritorium on the use of Nessun Dorma in any movie that is not explicitly about opera for, say, at least 10 years? It's the go-to song signifying triumph over the odds, and provides the requisite climactic rush before the soccer goal/big kiss/etc. It's hard to take seriously anymore.
Overall, good cheesy fun with some unintended laugh-out-loud moments (the agent is a hottie, but the bare midriff look at the end just doesn't suit him.)
Things I've learned:
For those not up on your teenybopper flicks, this is the story of a girl who decides to break away from her parents and have a little fun on a family trip to Prague. As she is the daughter of the President of the United States, wackiness ensues. She hooks up with a mysterious stranger who is not what he seems... but as this is a feel-good teen romantic comedy, he's not a serial killer, lecherous fratboy or terrorist mastermind. Nope, he's a gorgeous secret service angent -- with a British accent! And a motorbike! And he's just dreamy but oh-so respectful of her as a person, and he can't act on his burgeoning love for the madcap First Daughter because her father, the Prez, has decided to give her the illusion of freedom while she's actually being protected! Whoo-hoo! But, but, he lies to her, so how can she ever trust again?
Yeah. You get the idea.
This has all the requisite ingredients for a political teenybopper dramady type thing: Skanky French chick? Check. Wacky Englishman? Check. Kooky, free-spirited daugther who's still a good girl underneath? Check. Exotic locales? Check. Huge parties? Check. Hunky, amorous Germans? Check. A goat in the road? Check. A disaster with money? Check. A mysterious ability to cross borders despite the fact that passports were stolen along with the money? Check. No actual mention of terrorism or why the President may be reluctant to let his daughter get lost in the seething mass of humanity that is the Berlin Love Parade? Check. Understanding parental commisseration? Check. Wacky Secret Service Agents blending in with the hip kids? Check. And uplifting closing, featuring Nessun Dorma from Turnadot? Check.
By the way -- can we put a moritorium on the use of Nessun Dorma in any movie that is not explicitly about opera for, say, at least 10 years? It's the go-to song signifying triumph over the odds, and provides the requisite climactic rush before the soccer goal/big kiss/etc. It's hard to take seriously anymore.
Overall, good cheesy fun with some unintended laugh-out-loud moments (the agent is a hottie, but the bare midriff look at the end just doesn't suit him.)
Things I've learned:
- I really want to go to Prague and Venice, but you couldn't pay me enough money to be in Berlin for the Love Parade. I'm just not a seething-mass-of-humanity kind of girl.
- You can be a brat if you're tall and pretty.
- You can get away with running away from your parents if you have a crappy time at the end.
- Wacky sidekicks are just meant for each other.
- Jobs? Eh. Surely you can leave them at any time.
- All you have to do it show up -- really, that's all that's required of you to make everything right in the end.
posted by SAJ at
6:51 PM
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