It seemed like a surefire idea for a comedic star-vehicle: Shirley MacLaine as an infuriatingly stubborn former First Lady whose love-hate relationship with Secret Service Agent Nicolas Cage is tested when she's apparently kidnapped. Director High Wilson, who also co-wrote the screenplay, doesn't just have a sitcom sense of priorities--he formulates each scene into a situation as well ("The golfing scene", "The supermarket scene", etc.). Until tragedy brings everyone together, the characters are fairly exasperating--and, since the characters also function as gags, the "comedy" is rather mean-spirited. MacLaine probably felt a little persnickety jabbering would goose the proceedings, yet there's far too much bickering back and forth between she and Cage, and both fall back on their proved shtick (MacLaine certainly on her Aurora Greenway from "Terms of Endearment"). Wilson has a tough time getting this one started, and it does manage to improve after a strenuous first half-hour, but the film's underlying emotion is just as fraudulent as the witticisms. *1/2 from ****