The Short Review: We Saw “Their Finest.” We Liked It. You Might, as Well.

The Short Review: We Saw “Their Finest.” We Liked It. You Might, as Well. April 25, 2017

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Jan and I took off for our regular weekly movie and a dinner this past Sunday. Our desired weekly rhythm had been interrupted by various events. And, also, one or two of the films we saw most recently didn’t fit for my review standards (I either can say something positive, or I don’t write about it), so thanks to that perfect storm it’s been a while since I’ve been able to share our reaction to a movie.

And then this Sunday we saw Their Finest.

I found it a delightful contemporary take on a British classic sub-genre, life on the home front during the war. For those who have experienced enough of wars to wonder which, this is the Second World War. You know, the good one.

The conceit driving the plot is that a secretary has been noticed for her writing skills and is brought in to write “the slop,” the dialogue and scenes that will appeal to women for an upcoming propaganda film. A movie they all hope will encourage the Yanks to jump into the fray. There were in fact quite a number of these films made in real life. And as we watch that movie in the movie emerge, I think they capture it. Delightfully. There was even a scene toward the end as the plucky protagonists succeed in the face of adversity where I had to wipe away a tear. I was embarrassed that I was manipulated, and, well, impressed, too.

At the moment the movie takes place, whether the Americans will join in is anybody’s guess. And despite our historic perspective, and maybe as well some pretty near the surface disdain for propaganda living as we do today in a time where we are awash in “alternative facts,” nonetheless I felt quickly and fully drawn in.

Where we get a contemporary perspective is how that world was experienced by women. And a bit of how women will have had a taste of empowerment that will lead to our times. Sexism runs a cold current, and it’s not turned away from. “Obviously we can’t pay you as much as the chaps.” The women’s oriented writing, as I noted, is “slop.” The response to these indignities are not surrendered to our contemporary sensibilities of how to face injustices. No standing up and correcting the men with the power – with whatever follow up you might imagine. Instead the protagonist Catrin Cole, played by Gemma Arterton, sucks it up, takes what she’s offered, and then goes relentlessly after more. What we see is the reality that would open the doors that could not be closed, and in the end take us to where we are today.

Along the way the story involves Cole interviewing twin sisters who took their father’s boat and joined the makeshift armada that saved nearly four hundred thousand soldiers at Dunkirk. They’re hoping for a based on a real life event feel good story. She learns the sisters in fact never made it, their motor fouled. Back for the pitch to the government officials who would fund the project, she hides that fact which could scuttle the whole thing.

The rest of the movie is about making the movie. Well, and life. Lots of life. Life in the midst of a war, where death rains down on the city like a bad storm. And its funny. Somehow the whole thing works. It captures the era and I believe it captures film making in both the era and at that specific time with pressing limited resources. The film is directed by Lone Scherfig. The script was adapted by Gaby Chiappe from the novel by Lissa Evans. Staring as I’ve mentioned Gemma Arterton as Catrin Cole, with two men in her life Sam Claflin as screenwriter Tom Buckley, and Jack Huston as her artist husband, Ellis.

Manhola Dargis’s review in the New York Times opines that Claflin might have stolen the show, “except that he’s just one in a gang of wily thieves who include Eddie Marsan, Jeremy Irons, Jake Lacy, Richard E. Grant (king of the reaction shots) and that sly puss Bill Nighy as a faded star in permanent high dudgeon over his career.” Me, I would add in candidates for the great scene stealing star would be Jeremy Irons as a Shakespeare quoting bureaucrat. Or, okay, totally, I’d say Nighy’s over the hill movie star was a black hole of scene stealing. He’s great. Although, let’s be honest, the boys get a run for their money from Helen McCrory and Rachael Stirling’s characters as amazing scene stealers in their own rights. The cast is, quite simply, a wonder to behold. The smallest parts sparkle.

As does the story.

Ninety-nine professional reviewers were assessed by Rotten Tomatoes, and eighty-seven percent of them were positive about the movie. Eighty-one percent of not quite three thousand viewers recorded a positive feeling about seeing the film. My google search turned up a number of positive blurbs. Andrew Barker at Variety declared it a “crowd-pleaser that knows the difference between satisfying its viewers and flattering them.” Manohla Dargis at the NY Times said the movie is “Understandably too serious to be called a romp, yet it has a buoyancy that lifts you…” While Ian Freer at Empire states the movie is “funny, winning, beautifully acted ode to working women and cinema.”

Jan & I both found it a small delight. I think you might, as well…


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