neumu [ cinematronic ]




	Chasing Liberty
	Andy Cadiff Mandy Moore, Matthew Goode, Jeremy Piven, Annabella Sciorra, Caroline Goodall, Mark Harmon 2004		If you're a 14-year-old girl, the talented, ingratiating pop singer/actress Mandy Moore isn't a bad role model to embrace. Moore certainly has more in her favor than her Hollywood peers, TV-spawned mall kittens Hilary Duff and Amanda Bynes. A spirited, unpretentious ingénue approaching womanhood and a full-blown movie career with grace, Moore is expected to carry "Chasing Liberty," a tepid, too-long teen-skewed romantic comedy that updates, dumbs down and democratizes the Audrey Hepburn classic "Roman Holiday." Instead of Hepburn as an exquisite, sheltered European princess trying to escape the duties and loneliness of royalty, "Chasing Liberty" offers Moore as 18-year-old Anna Foster, winsome daughter of the U.S. president (Mark Harmon). Anna is sick of the pressures, expectations and lack of privacy in her life, so she breaks away from Secret Service agents (Jeremy Piven, Annabella Sciorra) guarding her during a family diplomatic trip to Europe, goes on the run with a handsome young British guy (Matthew Goode), and tries to revel in her newfound freedom. But Moore's natural sweetness, the solid supporting cast and the beauty of locations such as Venice and Prague can't give "Chasing Liberty" enough oomph and depth to interest anyone other than, well, a 14-year-old girl.