DVD
Upcoming Release Calendar
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Best / Worst of the Decade
Recent DVD/Video Releases
60
9
xx
Across the Hall
56
Adam
37
Amelia
73
Amreeka
35
Babysitters, The
70
Big Fan
57
Boys Are Back, The
81
Bright Star
71
Bronson
60
Brothers at War
55
Brothers Bloom, The
45
Burning Plain, The
xx
Carriers
64
Che
57
Chelsea on the Rocks
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
23
Couples Retreat
54
Dare
68
Departures
19
Downloading Nancy
55
Endgame
39
Fame
30
Final Destination, The
27
Gamer
50
Give Me Your Hand
46
Halloween II
73
House of the Devil, The
94
Hurt Locker, The
55
I Can Do Bad All By Myself
17
I Hate Valentine's Day
26
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
83
In the Loop
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
41
Little Ashes
80
Lorna's Silence
33
Love Happens
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
xx
Ministers, The
67
Moon
59
More Than a Game
49
New York, I Love You
66
No Impact Man
47
Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
28
Pandorum
68
Paranormal Activity
85
Passing Strange
63
Perfect Getaway, A
44
Peter and Vandy
54
Pontypool
35
Post Grad
30
Saw VI
79
Serious Man, A
36
Serious Moonlight
76
Soul Power
40
Spiral
39
St. Trinian's
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
47
Time Traveler's Wife
43
Tru Loved
61
Trucker
47
Weather Girl
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Finding Amanda
Mixed or average reviews
Based on 17 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 1 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy | Drama
Written by: Peter Tolan
Directed by: Peter Tolan
Release Date:
Theatrical: June 30, 2008
DVD: September 16, 2008
Running Time: 100 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for strong sexual content including graphic dialogue, pervasive language, drug content and brief nudity
Starring Matthew Broderick, Brittany Snow, Moira Tierney, and Steve Coogan
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 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 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 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. 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 Pictures)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
This dark comedy of addiction, delusion and humor as a weapon marks the feature directing debut of veteran writer Peter Tolan.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
If the title "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" didn’' already belong to Hunter S. Thompson, it would perfectly fit Peter Tolan's viciously funny satire, Finding Amanda.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Ella Taylor
By keeping the tone light, the players human (Steve Coogan has a nice turn as a greasy casino host), and never, ever romanticizing the addict, Finding Amanda comes by its heartbreak honestly.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin
It's amusing but facile, reasonably clever but hopelessly glib.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Broderick is splendid as the gambler. He knows, as many addicts do, that the addictive personality is very inward, however much acting out might take place.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
Broderick has the film's most clever lines, but Snow is quite funny and is convincing as an innocent lured by the promise of easy money.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
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.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Finding Amanda isn't bad, and there is some smart, jagged humor.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
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.
Read Full Review >Variety Ronnie Scheib
Although it avoids overt moralizing or clunky lesson-learning, pic's careful balancing act between tragedy and comedy eventually becomes its sole raison d'etre.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
This debut picture never makes up its mind about what sort of comedy it wants to be. But at least it has one--a mind, that is.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Finding Amanda is a minor movie for Broderick, but considering where it takes him, it's understandable why he took the role.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Richard James Havis
Even the easygoing Broderick can't inject any lift or charm into the story.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
Tolan writes regularly for smart shows like "Rescue Me," but his best instincts deserted him when he set his sights on the big screen for the first time.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Mark Olsen
The problem comes largely in the conception of the hooker-niece character, Amanda, played by Brittany Snow. Tolan never quite figures out whether she is supposed to be a variation on the hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold or a genuinely troubled teen.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
Finding Amanda, unfortunately, is one vast, irritating surface.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 5.0 (out of 10) based on 1 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
