Roland E. Zwick Harried sitcom writer Taylor Mendon is a recovering addict and compulsive gambler who heads to Las Vegas to rescue his ditzy twenty-year-old niece from a career in prostitution and to get her to enroll in rehab. The problem is that Amanda (Brittany Snow) is more than happy with the choices she's made and finds it rather hypocritical and presumptuous of her uncle of all people to be on his high horse regarding how she's living her life.Matthew Broderick has always excelled at playing the well-meaning, bumbling nebbish, but here, playing a well-meaning, bumbling nebbish who also happens to have alcohol and drug-dependency problems, he defies credibility. Moreover, writer/director Peter Tolan never quite strikes that proper balance between the lighthearted and the serious that he's so earnestly striving for (and which he often achieves on "Rescue Me").That being said, "Finding Amanda" does have a nice feel for its settings, a partially unexpected resolution, and enough goodwill to almost make it an enjoyable experience.

marc-rosenberg You can't not like Matthew Broderick, no matter how despicable his behavior is. One of my favorite American actors ("Election", "You Can Count On Me", etc). He always commits and is always believable. Brittiny Snow is a face you recognize but it's hard to place. She's wonderful and I'll always remember her now. The other actors are used economically and help move the plot, but the focus is certainly on the relationship between Broaderick and Snow. With Las Vegas as the backdrop there's plenty to look at and appreciate. The story is surprising without being too contrived. A quirky, very entertaining film. It's not a big screen release, and because of the content will die a slow death on cable.

Josh Kaplan Let me start by saying that this is an excellent film in almost every respect - clever dialogs which underlie a mature understanding of the psycho-dynamics of the characters, brilliant directing and overall very good acting. The main theme of the movie is denial - all characters lie to each other and especially to themselves about almost every respect of their lives. This is a fresh breath of air relatively to all those formula Hollywood movies where all characters only act according to some ridiculous higher ideology. I feel that for the first time in a long while I am actually watching the story of real people. Although the story in the movie comes to a solution, this is by no means a corny Hollywood like solution but actually is able to reveal some new insight into the story - which is always the sign of a great work of art. I am quite sure this movie deserves a larger audience than it got, I am certainly going to follow the next works of the creators of this film. Great job everyone.

robe-17 A really nice movie. Clever, a lot of very very funny lines, and uniformly strong performances. Better than so much of what is in theaters, I can't figure out why this didn't open on the big screen...oh yeah, it's for grown ups. Matthew Broderick manages to make his wealthy spoiled writer/producer sympathetic, mostly because his lines are so sharp, the character hasn't lost the ability to see the B.S., even as he peddles it. And the girl is a great new version of Reese Witherspoon, but 20 percent less cloying. I love that she's not super sexy: the movie is soaked in sex but not about sex...it treats it in such a matter of fact, American-as-apple-pie kind of way. If you watch this, you'll laugh. I keep calling up scenes and entertaining myself a day later. Congrats to the writer/director... and thanks.