A very darkly humorous film.
Finding Amanda (2008)
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work ![]()
Reviews Counted:40
Fresh:17
Rotten:23
Average Rating:5.2/10
Consensus: Despite a charming turn by Matthew Broderick, Finding Amanda is too flimsily executed to succeed as a dark comedy.
Synopsis:
From director Peter Tolan, creator of the hit television series Rescue Me, comes Finding Amanda, a hilarious and heartbreaking autobiographical comedy about the compulsions we can’t shake, and the...
From director Peter Tolan, creator of the hit television series Rescue Me, comes Finding Amanda, a hilarious and heartbreaking autobiographical comedy about the compulsions we can’t shake, and the unlikely lengths we’ll go to while trying.
Taylor Mendon (Matthew Broderick) is a television writer and producer working on a low-rated, little-respected half-hour sitcom. Once destined for bigger and better things, Taylor's compulsive gambling, recreational drug use and drinking all conspired to throw his career off the rails. After kicking the alcohol and drugs, he only has one more hurdle...the horses.
His beautiful twenty - year old niece Amanda (Brittany Snow) has her own habit to kick. Living in Las Vegas, working as a "dancer," her family has just discovered she is actually a prostitute, and they suspect hooking for drug money.
On their way home from an emergency family meeting, Taylor's wife Lorraine (Maura Tierney) finds recent racing stubs in Taylor's glove compartment. After years of standing by him, she leaves.
Taylor comes up with a plan: he'll win back his wife by doing the right thing. He'll go to Las Vegas, find Amanda, and deliver her to a rehabilitation center in Malibu. While he’s at it, he might even catch up with some old friends (like slimy casino host Steve Coogan). But besides that, it’s strictly the business at hand—while he's there, he vows, he won't gamble a single cent, but things don’t turn out quite as he’d planned. --© Magnolia Films
[More]
Starring: Matthew Broderick, Brittany Snow, Maura Tierney, Peter Facinelli
Starring: Matthew Broderick, Brittany Snow, Maura Tierney, Peter Facinelli, Steve Coogan, Bill Fagerbakke
Director: Peter Tolan
Director: Peter Tolan
Screenwriter: Peter Tolan
Producer: Wayne Rice, Richard Heller
Composer: Christopher Tyng
Studio: Mitropoulos Films
Reviews for Finding Amanda
This unromantic comedy is something less than a sure bet. For some reason, you get the impression that it doesn't live up to the promise of its premise.
Doesn't have a nuance in it, but it's pretty consistently amusing in its latter-day Woody Allen way. For most of the way, its morals are happily, believably wrong, but all bad things must come to an end.
Offers up some zinger lines in the trenches of Sin City but fails to live up to its ingenious concept.
A fun look at Vegas that imbues the seediness of the setting with a sense of innocence and warmth that might take some by surprise.
A peculiar film, which is really two films fighting to occupy the same space.
Too much of Peter Tolan's movie takes up Taylor's self-absorption as if it's actually interesting.
This cloying comedy is barely enlivened by its talented stars who both deserve much better.
Set mostly in Las Vegas, Finding Amanda offers a vision of confused Americans losing their already shaky bearings in the world’s gaudiest honky-tonk.
Finding Amanda has its wispy charms, including a funny scene when the ecstasy Taylor pops begins to kick in, and later when he encounters a pimp with showbiz aspirations.
Offers a steady supply of clever lines but suffers from the patina of self-loathing common to industry lifers and the unfortunate miscasting of straight-arrow Broderick as a depressed, cynical hack.
Spot-on casting of Brittany Snow in the title role makes the fun movie with a serious turn both entertaining and credible.
Opening with a scene from a bad sitcom that turns out to be indistinguishable from the rest of the movie, Finding Amanda limps before it’s even out of the gate.
Finding Amanda has some of the good and a lot of the bad aspects of a first film written and directed by the same person.
Much of Finding Amanda doesn't stand up to close scrutiny, but at its best the still-boyish Broderick suggests his most famous character, Ferris Bueller, going through a midlife crisis.
This vulgar film, replete with vile language and graphic descriptions of sex acts, degrades our culture. Even George Carlin might find it offensive.
Whether talking about being hooked on pot or just plain hooking, the movie despite, well, its potpourri of addictions, sticks to surfaces. Not to mention that a darker tone for this rehab redemption fare, might have been just the cure.
The familiar premise here has sharp fangs, unsparing wit and a knockout performance by Brittany Snow as the round-heeled 20-year-old.
Latest News for Finding Amanda
June 30, 2008:
Critics Consensus: WALL-E Is the Best-Reviewed Film of 2008
This week at the movies, we've got lonely robots (Pixar's WALL-E, directed by Andrew Stanton) and kinetic killers (Wanted, starring Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy, and Morgan... More...
May 04, 2008:
Trailer & Poster review ![]()
More...
More DVDs
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 18% 18% | New in Town |
| 23% 23% | Push |
| 43% 43% | Fragments |
What’s Hot On RT
Other News
Sponsored Links
Around The Network
- Finding Amanda at Rotten Tomatoes
- Finding Amanda at IGN
Fresh Links
Featured

Tim Burton's costume designer talks to Movieline about her long collaboration with the filmmaker and Johnny Depp.

The director talks about puppetry perfection and his film, Fantastic Mr. Fox

We've got 20 copies of the hit TV series' Pilot Episode to giveaway.

Get all the latest movie updates, reviews, interviews and features here.
Competitions

Enough Prequel, Original Trilogy and Family Guy DVDs to fill a space cruiser

Everything from Dr. No to Quantum of Solace could be yours.

We're giving away the 10th Anniversary Blu-ray, plus Braveheart and the Rocky collection



Top Critic

