My Date with the President's Daughter

I have to admit, I was 12 when this came out. I was in love with it. I was the age they were aimed at. I saw this on the Disney channel last night. I thought I would still love it. I have recently discovered that tastes change. And sometimes for the better. Although, I still think it was a cute little comedy. 12 year olds will definitely enjoy it. I wouldn't doubt that. The acting and the story are just a little lame. And of course there always is a message to be learned. Afer all, this was on the Disney channel. But it's better then most of the trash 12 year olds watch today. So, I would suggest it for them.

5/10

This movie gets up and running quickly and will take you along for a very fun ride. Witty and well thought out humor, quite different from typical movies. Adults will be entertained and treated with plenty of catchy comedy while children of all ages will be amused by the likeable characters and charismatic predicaments. A big thumbs up, and if it's feel good (and clean) comedy you want, I really tag this as a 10.

Through an unforeseen combination of circumstances, young teen Will Friedle manages to wind up with a date with the daughter of the president of the United States. The young lady, Elizabeth Harnois, is something of a wild child and the two of them ditch the Secret Service and end up with stories to tell their grandkids. That is assuming they have the same grandkids.

When this film was made by and for the Disney Channel we had a president of the United States with a teenage daughter named Clinton. In the intervening years the Bush family has given us two daughters who were roughly Chelsea Clinton's age when she was in the White House. One wonders whether George and Laura Bush stay up worrying whether Jenna and Barbara will ditch their Secret Service detail for a little fun and frolic. As if George didn't have enough problems.

The president and first lady are played by Dabney Coleman and Mimi Kuzyk and Friedle's parents are Jay Thomas and Wanda Cannon. Imagine when they have to leave a party at Thomas's boss's house to go to the White House because while they know their son is on a date, they don't know who the girl is.

Will Friedle played the goofy older brother in Boy Meets World and I always liked him. He's got great talent. I once saw an episode of that series which called upon Friedle to do a reading from Romeo and Juliet and he did it with conviction and passion. Friedle could have been trained at the Old Vic he was that good and I've admired his talent ever since. Still he's nicely typecast in doing goofy roles like this one, like Boy Meets World and serving as the voice of Ron Stoppable in Kim Possible.

This truly is a fantasy though. That fact was brought home to us by the news that Jenna Bush is now engaged to some Ivy League preppy of impeccable blue blood background. As if a kid like who Will Friedle plays is ever going to hook up with a real president's daughter.

Still it's a nice teen fantasy, brought to us courtesy of the Magic Kingdom.

We saw this on the Disney channel, one of a whole host of movies which get laughs at the difficulty of being a teen daughter of the president. I wonder why there are no movies about the difficulty of being a teen son of the president? It is all silly fluff, but Dabney Coleman (as the President) is always fun to watch and a cute teenager (Elisabeth Harnois) plays Hallie, his daughter.

Set in and around Washington, DC, it is election time again and the president is having a re-election rally. Meanwhile his daughter has a date with Duncan, the son of a car salesman. Things do not go smoothly, and much of the movie is slapstick situations. Including Duncan's dad's car getting stolen by a couple of kookie, harmless kids.

SPOILERS. The car is eventually recovered intact, in the process of chasing it the President ends up in jail because the officer doesn't believe he is the real President. Hallie ends up at a party without Duncan, but he shows up in time to save her from a cad. The President gains a newfound respect for his daughter, the car salesman for his son, and the two kids become boyfriend and girlfriend.

Normally I'd avoid any movie with a title like this, in fact any movie with 'president' in it. However, it only took the sight of Jay Thomas (memorable from Cheers and many other appearances) to hook me and eventually keep my attention until the final rap.

Overall I thought this was an extremely fine movie both in content and performances. It was well-directed and good to watch and in fact offered a pretty believable portrait of life in the white house, unlike most bigger budget movies which tend to gloss over the chinks in the armor.

Unusually, this is a movie from the 1990s which can actually be recommended as solid family viewing.