Their Finest

This review may contain spoilers!

A light tone and good sense of humour but this was a film that was afraid to take risks and played both it's narrative and it's characters far too safe. I would give Their Finest a 4.5/10.

This is a film with a very fine use of witty comedy, over the course of the feature the way a film is constructed is often ironically used to create some good running humour. The way character development is done within the film is very clear and heartening to watch; Hilliard's eventual humility is a victory, Buckley's respect for Cole is a good journey and Cole becoming a shrewd and vocal part of the British film industry really nails the film's theme. Their Finest has a great message; not just about female equality and empowerment but more importantly about the importance of female representation and heroes within film.

Sam Claflin, who played Tom Buckley, is a very stiff self-righteous role when first we meet him; over this film the chemistry he builds up with Arterton and the joy he starts exhibiting in scenes really makes him more of a charming and likeable role. Bill Nighy, who played Ambrose Hilliard, absolutely nails this vain arrogant actor role; Nighy is incredibly funny and presents a sharp wit in relation to his character's ego. Rachael Stirling, who played Phyl Moore, is a prim and straightforward character; Stirling is tough and confronts Arterton throughout, challenging her to be tough in a profession that wants to reject her. Jake Lacy, who played Carl Lundbeck, really has the macho swagger of the 'heroic' role; yet the way Lacy comedically reveals his character to be an awful actor is a fine part of this film. Jeremy Irons, who played the Secretary Of War, was an incredible cameo in this film; Irons performs a brief incredible monologue and then proceeds to rather ironically undercut that performance by presenting a stern military figure. Eddie Marsan, who played Sammy Smith, has great chemistry with Nighy in this feature; the way Marsan really caters to and bounces off Nighy's arrogant role is a lot of fun. Hubert Burton, who played Wyndham Best, creates a rather camp yet fun actor character; I especially enjoyed how Burton played off Lacy's rather clueless soldier turned actor.

However the best performance came from Helen McCrory, who played Sophie Smith. When first McCrory appears in this film she is a sister filled with grief over the loss of her brother, she adds a depth and dimension to the Nighy storyline that hadn't yet been introduced. As the film went along I was delighted to find that her role was taking on a position of power in relation to Nighy, suddenly she was in charge of managing his acting career and she developed a lot more authority than Marsan had. McCrory had a great back and forth between Nighy and herself, I liked how she very subtly gained control of a scene and set out ultimatums. Near the film's end, and once Nighy had gained a little humility, it was great to see these two approach one another on a more equal footing and be a lot closer from all the work McCrory's character had done.

This film criticises how film is made/written a lot but too often it really makes the same mistakes that it is criticising. One big one is this idea of how to write romance and the use of 'love triangles', it takes two thirds of the movie before Cole's marriage is revealed to not be a real one leaving things perfectly open for Buckley to fall in love with her. Because this is introduced quite late in the game you aren't wildly invested in this sudden drive for Cole to decide between two men, it feels very disingenuous from the female empowerment message of the film. When Buckley dies later in the film, after we've spent twenty minutes watching the pair struggle with their romantic feelings, you feel like you've wasted a lot of time watching something for no payoff; so rather than feeling sad about Buckley's death you just kind of feel annoyed. Constantly this film is too scared to tackle it's more serious scenes, cutting from them as quickly as possible so that it can return to the light, comedic tone it clearly much preferred. The cinematography used throughout was poorly framed, often cluttering the foreground and background with unnecessary content which took the focus off the more important aspects of the scenes. The editing really solidified the pacing issues of the film, too often this film felt as if it lingered on cuts or was afraid to leave content out. The score for the film was very light and chirpy which worked sometimes but harmed the moments where the film tried to take itself seriously.

Gemma Arterton, who played Catrin Cole, wasn't a very good lead for this feature; Arterton is too prepared to play her character's moments of strength down so that you never really feel the significance of what her role is doing. Jack Huston, who played Ellis Cole, is quite an unnecessary figure in Their Finest; Huston has no chemistry with Arterton and you know the purpose that his character will ultimately serve from the start. Paul Ritter, who played Raymond Parfitt, is a role with a lot of potential but not enough screentime to ever achieve it; it's frustrating that Ritter has so few lines that you never know if he's there to support Arterton or be one of the figures against her. Richard E. Grant and Henry Goodman, who played Roger Swain and Gabriel Baker respectively, felt like stock authority figures in the film; the way they barked out exposition meant you lost interest in them pretty quickly.