Click Here For Our Interview with Matthew Broderick
Click Here For Our Interview with Brittany Snow

Finding Amanda

Review By: Andrea Tuccillo
AndreaTuccillo@TheCinemaSource.com

Finding Amanda is an indie film that searches for the balance between comedic situations and more serious issues, but just ends up feeling disconnected. The elements never quite gel the way they should, and neither do the characters. Written and directed by Rescue Me’s Peter Tolan, Finding Amanda is a film that settles for “just OK.”

Taylor Peters (Matthew Broderick) is a TV writer for a god-awful show, a former drug and alcohol addict and current compulsive gambler (who’s pretty much always in a bad luck streak). Oh yeah, and he lies a lot too. When his fed-up wife (Maura Tierney) kicks him out of the house, Taylor decides to travel to Las Vegas to rescue his 20-year-old niece Amanda (Brittany Snow), who has been working as a prostitute. He promises his wife that he will convince the girl to go to rehab, but his main motivation is the chance at a gambling bender at the glittering casinos.

It doesn’t take him long to find Amanda, but she doesn’t want his help. Even she can tell that he’s the last person who should be giving her advice. The two spend a couple of days learning about each other. Amanda’s not as completely happy as she wants people to believe, but she seems more in control than Taylor, who’s headed for rock bottom. There’s a played out joke where no one believes that Amanda is really is his niece. “Riiight, you’re niece,” people say. “No, she really is my niece!” Taylor insists. You get the picture. The funniest moments come from Amanda’s delinquent moocher boyfriend, Greg (Peter Facinelli, who, according to IMDb, went to my old high school in Queens! Who knew?).

On the way to self-realization, Taylor gets beat up by a john, relapses into drinking and drugs and loses a huge jackpot winning. In the end, Taylor acknowledges that he’s the one truly in need of rehab.

Matthew Broderick has a certain demeanor in every role he plays. It’s a kind of self-deprecating, slightly sarcastic bit that no matter how bad off his character is, you never take it too seriously. The downside to that? His character in Finding Amanda never feels real. He’s almost too casual, and by the time he finally wakes up, the movie’s over.

Brittany Snow has slightly better luck, but its hard to get over how miscast she looks as a Las Vegas hooker with a heart of gold. She could be Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s freshly-scrubbed triplet. The movie does explain her innocent appearance, though. Amanda tells Taylor that her clients like her because she looks inexperienced.

Snow has a few good emotional scenes and she plays them well. You see glimpses of Amanda’s longing for perfection—perfect home, perfect family life. She makes guests take off their shoes before they walk into her house and she cooks and ...