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Movies / On DVD / Finding Amanda
Finding Amanda

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Finding Amanda (2008)

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Reviews Counted:14

Fresh:5

Rotten:9

Average Rating:5.5/10

Consensus: Despite a charming turn by Matthew Broderick, Finding Amanda is too flimsily executed to succeed as a dark comedy.

Runtime: 1 hr 36 mins

Genre: Comedies

US Box Office: $31,340

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
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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

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Reviews for Finding Amanda

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1 - 7 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
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Matthew Broderick regains his cinematic stride as a morosely wise-cracking television producer on the skids, ably abetted by Maura Tierney as his much-put-upon wife and Brittany Snow as his perky prostitute niece.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
10/18/08
Ronnie Scheib
Ronnie Scheib
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Broderick’s sunny spin on the deeply flawed Taylor is interesting but eventually defies belief. In the third act, Finding Amanda loses steam altogether.

Full Review Source: Ebert & Roeper | comment 1 Comment
06/30/08
Richard Roeper
Richard Roeper
Ebert & Roeper
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Written with more bite, the premise might hold up, but as executed here by Tolan, it is a soft-hearted, haphazard mess.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
06/27/08
Mark Olsen
Mark Olsen
Los Angeles Times
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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.

comment Comment
06/27/08
Stephen Holden
Stephen Holden
New York Times
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A peculiar film, which is really two films fighting to occupy the same space.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
06/27/08
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
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The film's tone shifts jarringly from superficial broad comedy to something far darker. And the hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold scenario is as old as the profession itself.

Full Review Source: USA Today | comment Comment
06/26/08
Claudia Puig
Claudia Puig
USA Today
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
06/26/08
Ann Hornaday
Ann Hornaday
Washington Post
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1 - 7 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
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