Movie Reviews
Finding Amanda Needs Some Saving of its Own
Lindsay Berg |
 |
 Critically acclaimed and historically lucrative films set in Las Vegas such as Bugsy, Casino and Ocean’s Eleven have coined Sin City a pretty respectable place for a movie location. On a similar note, the art of humanizing prostitution in timeless films such as Pretty Woman, Risky Business and Midnight Cowboy has deemed the subject quite a successful one. With these two forces combined, one would only assume it’s the perfect, failsafe content for a film. Unfortunately, unlike the comedy Ocean’s Eleven or the drama Midnight Cowboy, Finding Amanda can’t quite decide which genre it wants to be and does not have the directorial expertise to be a hybrid. Nonetheless, the movie does possess a certain amount of affability, primarily due to its stars Matthew Broderick and Brittany Snow.
Taylor Peters (Broderick) is a married, washed-up television executive, struggling to remain clean from his drinking and drug addictions. The looming issue is his gambling problem, particularly horseracing, which his wife Lorraine (Maura Tierney) believes is all in the past. He continues to bet thousands of dollars at the track, all of which never proves to be a worthy investment. Once she finds out his addiction is still one to be reckoned with, she threatens to leave him for good. In a desperate attempt to redeem himself and win Lorraine back, Taylor vows to bring their 20-year-old niece Amanda (Snow) to a rehabilitation facility in Malibu after discovering she has become a prostitute in Las Vegas.
Allegations of Amanda’s drug use are putting an emotional strain on Lorraine, and the last thing she wants to deal with is a deceitful husband. The thought of a former drug-addicted alcoholic with a current gambling problem heading out to Vegas to “save” a girl immersed in a scene that represents everything he should be avoiding nearly sends Lorraine over the edge. However, being the patient wife she is, she gives Taylor one last chance before finally breaking the camel’s back. Predictably, temptation gets the best of him; instead of focusing on saving Amanda, who insists she doesn’t need saving at all, Taylor doesn’t waste a moment on the gambling floor, and barely makes it a day before he starts ordering more than a Coke.
 Constantly thrown into uncomfortable and unfathomable situations (i.e. walking in on a drug dealer receiving oral sex, picking up cocaine for a “friend” or experimenting with ecstasy for the first time), Taylor, along with Amanda, questions whether he really is the right candidate for such a task. He quickly slips down a dangerous slope, beginning with catching up on old times with a skuzzy casino host (Steve Coogan), then hardly intervening on Amanda pulling “tricks” and drinking underage. Taylor completely lacks any backbone when situations challenge his innate inclination to act as an uncle even in the slightest. There is a constant hope Taylor will eventually defend Amanda, but he continually disappoints by posting up on the sidelines when she is degraded by other men, particularly her boyfriend Greg (Peter Facinelli).
The film swings back and forth between Amanda and Taylor, each emphasizing their, often avoidable, predicaments. Neither character seems to have any true remorse in the beginning: Taylor does a half-hearted plea to his wife and Amanda’s upbeat, cheerleader-esque attitude fully embraces prostitution. Amanda defends her profession choice by a mildly convincing claim that it allows her to indulge in commodities she insists she couldn’t afford otherwise. Needless to say, this clouds her judgment when concerning the reality of her job as well as her abusive and cheating boyfriend, and it leads to her inevitable breakdown.
Finding Amanda eventually, as easily foreshadowed, becomes a film about learning from one another’s mistakes and reflecting on your own faults through the life of another. It’s not the most original concept, but Snow as a peppy little prostitute and Broderick as a struggling addict does provide a worthwhile self-discovery story. Broderick’s often overlooked humor is just as on point as it has always been, and Snow is continuing to prove her potential as a young, versatile actor.
 Aside from the movie’s ambiguous tone, another challenge audiences have is deciding whether or not its characters are likable. It may seem like an unimportant factor, but when dealing with severe issues such as sex, drugs and gambling, viewers often have an inclination to feel either sympathy or disdain. With Taylor and Amanda, however, audiences want to like them and want to understand them, but it is incredibly difficult. Amanda is a sweet, doe-eyed girl who viewers would usually pity after discovering her past, but her laissez-faire attitude and utter disregard for anyone besides her boyfriend makes liking her a struggle. Similarly, Taylor seems like a funny, caring man, but his actions only prove otherwise: he turns his head when his own niece is disrespected and treated like a whore (rightfully so, but not just in the professional meaning of the word), and doesn’t experience a moment of hesitation when lying to his wife. What kind of respectable, grown man does not react to a sleazy man calling a young girl (particularly family) a whore? And what kind of husband wastes no time going against his promise to his wife? Worse yet--what kind of uncle is bullied into covering for his unfaithful niece’s boyfriend? Taylor clearly lacks any nerve and obviously couldn’t be more wrong for the job put before him.
Strangely enough, however, even though the two characters seem unrespectable by any conventional standard, a fondness lingers for them both. Perhaps it is how realistic they seem to be, or perhaps it’s just an affinity to Ferris Bueller and cute blonde cheerleaders. Either way, the two save Finding Amanda from an identity crisis and a lackluster plot. Just don’t expect too much in the end; like the majority of the film’s components, it leaves audiences with an uncalled-for sense of disappointment.
Finding Amanda is now playing in limited release.
|
