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First Daughter
Metascore
31 out of 100

Generally unfavorable - based on 24 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 24
  2. Mixed: 14 out of 24
  3. Negative: 10 out of 24
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  1. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    50
    All heart and has the best intentions in the world, but what a bore. It's a beat slower than it should be, it makes its points laboriously, and the plot surprise would be obvious even if I hadn't seen the same device used in exactly the same way earlier this year in "Chasing Liberty."
  2. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Connie Ogle
    50
    Just one more in the plague of weak Cinderella stories released in the past year. It's too sugary to be good for you, but in the end, its over-the-top sweetness won't kill you.
  3. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Robert Dominguez
    50
    There are plot holes you can fly Air Force One through.
  4. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Carrie Rickey
    50
    Is there a limit to this incessant princessitude?
  5. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Carla Meyer
    50
    First Daughter can be measured in degrees of Holmes' discomfort... There's never a moment when she doesn't appear as if she'd rather be in a different movie.
  6. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Rick Groen
    50
    A dull, formulaic romance comedy with an ulterior motive and a sly message. Remarkably, the message is this: "Please Re-elect George Bush."
  7. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Angel Cohn
    50
    Keaton and Holmes have some sweet father-daughter moments and the supporting cast gives its all.
  8. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Luke Y. Thompson
    50
    Part of the problem is that this First Daughter is modeled on good-girl Chelsea Clinton; a movie based on our current two party-girls-in-chief trying to embarrass their reformed alcoholic dad would be far more fun.
  9. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    50
    Whitaker directed this flaccid romance from a script by girl-power hacks Jessica Bendinger.
  10. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    42
    The role of a poised daddy's girl is a dull one for Holmes, who looks pained, in a nonspecific way, throughout her capers; the movie itself, with a screenplay by Jessica Bendinger and Kate Kondell, is a dull one for director Forest Whitaker.
  11. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Winda Benedetti
    42
    Though First Daughter delivers a nice twist about midway through and Keaton lights up the screen every time he's on it, Holmes fails to deliver the kind of nuanced performance "Pieces of April" suggests she's capable of.
  12. Empire
    Reviewed by: Lucy Aitken
    40
    Holmes' wholesome charm keeps the movie afloat, but only just.
  13. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Ben Kenigsberg
    40
    First Daughter is less amusing than Jenna and Barb at the RNC, and dumb enough to make last January's presidential scion, Mandy Moore, look electable.
  14. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Carina Chocano
    40
    While First Daughter is nowhere near as airheaded or disingenuous as "Chasing Liberty," it's far more confused.
  15. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    38
    It's a glossy, well-mounted, slickly done but almost stuporously predictable affair, both formula-bound and utterly illogical.
  16. Charlotte Observer
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Toppman
    38
    Has any movie this millennium had less reason to exist than First Daughter?
  17. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    30
    A bland, formulaic picture where romance and comedy are noticeably absent. A more wooden and uninspired effort from talented people behind and in front of the camera is difficult to imagine.
  18. Variety
    Reviewed by: Robert Koehler
    30
    There are stiff politicians and there are stiff political movies, but the rigidity of the White House-based fairy tale that is First Daughter is in a category even pollsters may have a hard time assessing.
  19. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Michael O'Sullivan
    30
    One hackneyed, inauthentic, predictable scene after another.
  20. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    25
    Directed without wit or energy.
  21. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    25
    Just bland behavioral propaganda, and Holmes makes such a guileless and robotic spokeswoman, it wouldn't be nuts to think the White House was just another mansion in Stepford.
  22. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    20
    Stupendously dull and infuriatingly obtuse.
  23. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Scott Tobias
    20
    It sends a bad message to the film's young audience that the daughter of a world leader needn't be more than a vapid bikini-stuffer.
  24. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    20
    Plays more like a nightmare than a dream, and an exceedingly unnerving one at that. Sam isn't just a prisoner of her parents' ambitions; like nearly everyone else in this film, she's a zombie, sleepwalking through life while Rome burns.
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