Finding Normal
Finding Normal
| 18 May 2013 (USA)
Finding Normal Trailers

Dr. Lisa Leland is a brilliant surgeon with absolutely no bedside manner. She is leaving her practice at UCLA Hospital to move to the Hamptons where she will join her boyfriend as a concierge doctor, treating the rich and famous. As she drives cross-country to her new life she hits a tractor in Normal, North Carolina and her BMW is wrecked. Dr. Leland is found guilty of speeding and ordered to do community service as a doctor in Normal, population 332. In a town with no wi-fi, no lattes and no credit cards, Lisa Leland begins to find herself and discovers what a meaningful life is all about.

Reviews
TinsHeadline

Touches You

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Ensofter

Overrated and overhyped

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Huievest

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

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Senteur

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

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allenbmills

Finding Normal is a great movie, that shows us how doing what God wants in your life is much more important then making a bundle of money! Yes, we need a certain amount of money to be secure and healthy, but we don't need to be millionaires to be happy.A lady physician, who is engaged to a greedy doctor learns this lesson, when she speeds through a little country town, called Normal. After she gets stopped by a policeman for speeding, she is escorted to the judge in Normal. I don't want to give away all of the fun details, but this movie is heartwarming and wonderful!Like many of the other viewers of this movie, I am happy that, Finding Normal is a movie for all ages. Although the theme is mostly for adults, Finding Normal is a movie that my 9 and 11 year old granddaughters enjoyed. This non-rated film has no profanity, immoral sex scenes, or shocking violence. It is a meaningful, sweet movie!

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foxmulder241-632-897817

If you seen Michael J Fox's Doc Hollywood you have basically seen this movie with a few minor changes.I see some make this out to be some kind of religious movie and I did not see it that except for a story about a cross on public land part that lasted maybe 15 minutes Since it is just a remake of Doc Hollywood i will list a few of the changes other the the minor cross story.1. The obvious one the lead changed from male to female 2. The lead was going from L.A. to NYC instead of NYC to L.A.3. Instead of destroying a fence(Doc Hollywood) it was tickets that got the star community service Other then that without giving away to much it was Doc Hollywood.I recommend this movie unless you hate anything that even mentions something to do with religion because it is a funny

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Peter Bickford

(Minor spoilers ahead) On one hand, Finding Normal treads very familiar ground: woman city slicker doctor lands like a fish out of water in a ridiculously good-natured burg in the middle of nowhere and has to rethink her priorities while first sparring with--then falling for--the good-looking bachelor town mechanic. The characters are likable, the filming and acting are fine, and the whole enterprise is nice, but a little forgettable.But then, something amazing happens which is eye-opening in that that you come to realize that something so ordinary is basically never seen in this genre of movie. The characters of this middle-America town are revealed to contain large numbers of practicing Christians who seem to actually take their faith seriously as a part of their life, and are nevertheless portrayed as, well, normal folks.They go to church on Sunday, they attend pancake breakfasts where they actually socialize like normal folks, and they seem like genuinely nice people. They're not a secret glassy-eyed cult; they're not simpletons or hateful bigots who treat outsiders with disgust; they're not covert hypocrites living out endless perversions in private while breathing fire and brimstone at the pulpit... or any of the countless tropes that have been beaten into the ground for decades by Hollywood.Perhaps most shocking, they also don't express the sort of lukewarm, formalistic faith which is the only sort that Hollywood seems to allow Christians to possess on film--the kind that makes mealy-mouthed reference to "some greater power" while never actually saying the "G" word. Instead, the characters in this town are regular folks who believe in God, and are just fine with that. They're open, non-self-conscious, and frankly, a lot like the actual people of faith in the real world.That this sort of character is _never_ seen in a romantic comedy--or for that matter, almost any movie outside of the "Christian Movie" ghetto, is what was most surprising to me as I watched this film.If the female lead had expressed a deep interest in the healing power of crystals, it would have simply marked her as a "free spirit" and it would have fit comfortably in with the genre; if the characters had been seen bowing to Mecca at some point, it would have been "edgy". But perhaps the most subversive thing that Finding Normal manages is to actually incorporate Christians into a romantic comedy without turning it into a religious film. As such, this initially has the effect of shocking you out of the "rom-com" zone somewhat as a viewer--and that itself speaks volumes for the way Hollywood has formalized its suspicion of (primarily Christian) religion into the way stories are presented on film.

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utgard14

Candace Cameron Bure plays a doctor traveling from Los Angeles to her wedding in the Hamptons when she's pulled over for speeding in the town of Normal, North Carolina. Because she has a lot of unpaid tickets, she's taken before a country judge who sentences her to serve as the town's doctor for three days to pay off her fine. While there she starts to fall for the small town and one local man (Trevor St. John) in particular.What a pleasant surprise this was. I think it's impossible to dislike Candace Cameron Bure unless you have some serious personality issues. She's likable, pretty, and endearing. The supporting cast is good, too. A lot of times in these types of TV movies, you have a couple of recognizable leads and then a bunch of bland Canadians (I kid, I kid) filling out the rest of the cast. But here the cast is full of personable actors. Lou Beatty, Jr. is a standout and nearly steals the movie. The sheriff's deputy and the little girl are also very nice. My only real problem with the cast is Trevor St. John playing the small town guy Candace's big city doctor is inevitably supposed to fall for. For starters, his accent is a bit much. Everybody in the town has a Southern accent but this guy is full-on Gomer with it. Also, his character is kind of a jerk from the moment we first meet him. Throughout most of the movie, there's this condescending air about him that I didn't quite like. Nice kiss at the end with Candace, though. Pretty hot for this type of movie, I gotta admit.As others have pointed out, the story is similar to the Michael J. Fox movie Doc Hollywood. Although Candace does very little doctoring, really. There are some plot gremlins, as well. For one thing, she has to stay in the town to serve out her sentence because they don't accept credit or debit cards (really?) and the town's only ATM is broken. Also, she apparently has no checks because "where I come from we don't use those." Well this is all just contrived silliness. She could probably call her bank and have the money transferred or any other of a half-dozen solutions that would end the movie's plot before it really begins. Also, the outstanding tickets that she has are not local so I'm sure Los Angeles would not be thrilled to know that instead of getting its money, this lady worked a few days as a doctor in Mayberry. But this is all just hole-poking and perhaps a bit unfair so I would advise just shutting your brain off and enjoying it for what it is.Some of the critiques I've read come from reviewers with obvious axes to grind and personal agendas to pursue. This movie has no pretense about being what it is nor does it try to be sneaky or subversive. I watched it on a channel that primarily shows Christian-themed programming. I knew it was going to be a movie of a certain type. If I (or anybody else) was uncomfortable with that, why watch it? Yet some people apparently did watch it, all the while with their fists clenched over the perceived outrage being perpetrated on them. Takes all kinds I guess. Things do go off the rails a little bit when they bring the ACLU into the plot. It just seems pretty unbelievable that so much is happening in this small town during Candace's brief stay. But, again, suspension of disbelief is our friend here.So, final result is that it's a very nice TV movie despite its flaws. Charming turns from Candace Cameron Bure and Lou Beatty, Jr. go a long way to making it work. Speaking of Mr. Beatty, I would like to address a comment by another reviewer. The reviewer said that this movie was a "poor remake of Doc Hollywood but with less black people." What an asinine statement. I didn't realize there was a set number of people of any kind that every movie had to have. But since the reviewer saw fit to go there, I would just like to point out that Lou Beatty's character is more important to the plot of this film than any black character in Doc Hollywood was.

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