A man with a serious gambling problem (Matthew Broderick) goes to Las Vegas in search of his niece (Brittany Snow), who has become a prostitute.

CRITIQUE

Finding Amanda is one of those movies that is so misconceived that one wonders what the filmmakers were thinking.  Basically, they have taken when easily could have been an edgy drama – a tale of people with real problems – and have tried to turn it into a comedy, though without much real enthusiasm; though there are a lot of comic music cues telling us where the humor is supposed to be, this really isn’t funny at all.

Main character Taylor (a suddenly-aging Matthew Broderick) is a TV writer who has a serious fixation on gambling on horses; he lies to his wife (Maura Tierney), who is ready to leave him.  To prove himself, he sets off to try and convince his drug addicted hooker of a niece Amanda to come back to California with him and go into rehab.  But Taylor is really just going to Las Vegas to gamble, Amanda likes being a whore, and the audience is never made to care at all.

Broderick and Snow give game enough efforts, but they really don’t have anything to work with here, while supporting actors like Tierney and Steve Coogan (as a casino employee) are completely wasted.  Writer-director Peter Tolan shows no real for juggling comedy and drama, and botches both, though the result isn’t even interesting enough to be bad-movie fun. 

THE VIDEO

Finding Amanda is presented in 1.78:1 widescreen.  The picture quality and transfer are okay, though this is mostly interiors.

THE AUDIO

Finding Amanda is presented in English 5.1 and 2.0 Dolby Digital.  Dialogue, music and sound effects come through clear.  There are Spanish subtitles.

THE EXTRAS

There is a Commentary featuring Broderick and Tolan.  They have a good bantering way to them, and it’s interesting to hear how much of this (particularly the gambling) was autobiographical for Tolan.  But there’s not much insight into how they actually thought this movie might work.

There is a 14-minute Interview with Broderick, Snow and Tolan at the World Premiere of the movie, where they sit on the stage in chairs and take questions from the audience.  It’s interesting, and somewhat illuminating on how the movie came to be, though again they still seem to think here that they’ve made a great movie.

FINAL THOUGHT

Even fans of Broderick or Snow won’t find much to like here.