January is traditionally the "dumping month," the month studios trot our their turkeys that they've lost faith in, or have gone bung somewhere along the way. Chasing Puberty, I mean Chasing Liberty isn't quite the sacrificial lamb that a movies like The Big Bounce is going to be (the scuttlebutt on it is not good), because it is demographically designed to appeal to fairly reliable box office regulars - the hormonally-challenged moon-eyed "tween." Mandy Moore has been a regular poster child for the tween crowd, even though none of her past films have penciled out at the box-office.

This isn't to say that she isn't talented and appealing, it's just that she needs to choose a role that makes her a little more distinguishable from what's-her-name, Hillary Duff. The two have become virtually interchangeable. Chasing Liberty is predictable from the first frame, though one senses that director Andy Cadiff is trying to pay homage to similarly themed Audrey Hepburn classic Roman Holiday.

This time around Mandy Moore plays the daughter of the President of the United States, who is frustrated by her inability to pursue normal, unsupervised teenage happiness. Secret service agents shadow her every move and naturally she wishes to cast off these shackles, bla bla bla. In an attempt to placate the puberty-stricken first daughter a plot is devised whereby she gets the opportunity to hop on the back of a moped during a trip with her father to Europe. What she doesn't know is that her young bohemian mopedler is, in truth, a young secret service agent with a charming British accent.

Matthew Goode portrays the agent in charge of insuring that Mandy's lost weekend is well supervised and that her wild oats are well swept.
Naturally they both have to lie to each other about who they really are and of course they wind up falling for each other and eventually Goode is tempted to be bad in the classic confrontation of Duty vs. Booty. This we know is going to happen, as sure as we know the movie is eventually going to end and we are going to be expected to leave the theater.

I guess my biggest problem with this film is that it is so irresponsible in it's depiction of rebellion and promiscuity with absolutely no consequences. The film would have been just as delightful for the tweens had Mandy not chosen to forsake her virginity. Then again, I guess the movies need to keep up with television in it's licentiousness.
I don't mean to come off sounding like a prude, but this is a movie aimed at 13 year old girls. A kiss would have sufficed. Few adults are going to mistake Mandy for Audrey Hepburn.

Given the juicy scenario and the undeniable sex appeal of the two leads there is a surprising absence of chemistry. In fact the only well written and entertaining sequences in this film take place between Annabella Sciorra and Jeremy Piven as two flustered agents who exchange some amusing banter as they try to stay on top of the proceedings.

For the audience that this filmed is geared to entertain it will no doubt get the job done, but for anyone old enough to know that buying any of this premise takes superhuman abilities to suspend disbelief . . . I shouldn't think I need to warn you off.