Samantha

As precious and in love with itself as the title character it celebrates, SAMANTHA is too cute for its own good. Burlesquing an identity crisis involving a young woman's discovery that she was adopted, this coming-of-age movie flutters between fantasy and reality in a facile manner that defeats its talented cast.

Twenty-one years ago, Samantha (Martha Plimpton) was abandoned on the doorstep of the Perlmutters, who quickly shifted the bundle of joy to the loving home of Walter (Hector Elizondo) and Marilyn (Mary Kay Place). Right before her 21st birthday, her adoptive parents reveal her foundling origin. Temporarily forgetting their years of patient devotion, ...