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This is a great wee movie. Full of me memorable moments from hilarity to wiping away a wee tear. Must see. Went to the UK premier at the GFT last Sunday (February 14 2017😂the performances, restrained and very understanding were superb. As usual, Bill Nighy played to his strengths and was, as usual, very funny. Newer faces were equally good in this almost ensemble cast. Go see this film. After watching terrible badly written movies such as Triple X 3 and John Wick 2, this carefully built film is a joy.

I didn't like it, but I can't get it out of my head. So now I'm thinking it was actually pretty great movie - as it still resonates with me. Initially, I didn't like that it was about something as upbeat as movies in the middle of a war - the contrast of the two made the plot seem a bit silly and unnecessary. However, I now understand that this movie is about the frailty of life, living in the moment and maybe even about opportunity/second chances.

It's 1940 and London is under heavy bombardment. Expecting to be a secretary, Catrin Cole (Gemma Arterton) is hired by Ministry of Information to give scripts a female touch. Her 'husband' is a struggling artist with a gimpy leg from the Spanish war. She is given the real story of twin sisters Lily and Rose stealing their father's boat to go to Dunkirk. Once there, she finds the truth is different from the news story. She decides to spin half-truths to her superiors to continue the project. Tom Buckley (Sam Claflin) is her impossible head writer and Ambrose Hilliard (Bill Nighy) is an acting diva. As they rush to finish the film, the story gets changed and a relationship develops.

The actors are good. The story is touching but like the fictional movie inside the movie, some artificial manipulation starts to show. It has its poignant tear-jerker fun. The big acting moment from Gemma is a half and half proposition where it feels somewhat manufactured although it is very in keeping with the concept of the movie. Gemma is a solid lead dealing with all the emotions and issues. Bill Nighy is terrific as usual. Sam Claflin transitions well. It's all very good.

"Their Finest" is a clever, charming and funny movie from Danish director Lone Scherfig. Adding to her most well-known films to date, "An Education" and "The Riot Club", it is clear that Scherfig is a true Anglophile at heart, as this is as British as it comes. The film tells the story of Catrin Cole (Gemma Arterton), a Welsh secretary in London at the height of the Blitz who finds herself on the writing staff of a propaganda film about the Dunkirk evacuation. Though married to a struggling artist (Jack Huston), feelings grow between Catrin and fellow writer Buckley (Sam Claflin) as they struggle to make "The Nancy Starling" a film worthy of raising the nation's spirits.

One of the strengths of "Their Finest" is its glorious sense of place and time. The locations and production design provide a real asset. The daily threat of the Blitz is rightly given sufficient screen time to feel like an ever-present menace, while wartime London and an idyllic Cornish coast are well realised.

"Their Finest" is at its best when the the lines between the movie we are watching and the movie being produced on screen are blurred. We see the characters and plot of "The Nancy Starling" evolve within Catrin's mind in a series of comic scenes which give Bill Nighy's character, ageing actor Ambrose Hilliard, some of his best moments. In one particularly inspired moment, the continuation of a real conversation between the romantic pair is imagined in the same visual style of the on-screen movie. The writers and director clearly had a lot of fun with these ideas and their execution is spot on. The creators' love of cinema is realised in a way only possible in a film about film-making and film-watching. The emotions of an audience watching "The Nancy Starling" in the film clearly capture the joy the writers and director take from cinema in general, and it's very infectious!

Arterton plays the lead role very capably, creating a likable protagonist. Among the most memorable performances, Bill Nighy plays himself very well (it's difficult to imagine who could have played him better), and Rachael Stirling shines but is sadly underused. Jake Lacy is also entertaining as the square-jawed American who turns out to be a terrible actor. The film possibly suffers from the distracting addition of star cameos (Jeremy Irons popping up here for a single scene), a fault I find particularly noticeable in British films of this style.

The key fault for me was that the film seemed unsure which of its two main plot-lines, the making of "The Nancy Starling" and the romance between Catrin and Buckley, should take centre-stage. Developing both meant that the beginning and the end of the film suffered. Initially the film needed to introduce lots of only partially related themes and concepts, which made the opening scenes feel artificially and dissatisfyingly forced together. The need to conclude both threads produced more than a few false endings which certainly made the film feel its length. The competition between story-lines also meant that some of the supporting characters, particularly Jack Huston's suffering artist, did not receive the attention they needed to give enough weight to their plot contributions. Even Buckley, one of the key players, didn't seem quite fleshed out enough, though this is not helped by the poor chemistry between Sam Claflin and Gemma Arterton.

At its best though, "Their Finest" is a wonderful send-up of propaganda movie-making of the 1940s and a worthy war film in its own right.

Danish director Lone Scherfig (An Education, Italian for Beginners, One Day) knows her way around British humor, feminism, WW II, and the art and at times chaos of making a movie. Based on a novel by Lissa Evans and adapted for the screen by Gaby Chiappe, THEIR FINEST is a brilliant little film about making a film under duress and how all members of the film crew – stars to stuntmen and cameramen – interact. It is also a fine punch in the ribs for British views of Americans – not only during the 1940s but now also!

Caitlin Cole (Gemma Atherton) lives with struggling and wounded Welsh painter Ellis Cole (Jack Huston) and they strive to exist on a minimal income. During the London Blitz of World War II, Caitlin is recruited by the British Ministry of Information to write scripts for propaganda films that the public will actually watch without scoffing. In the line of her new duties, Cole investigates the story of two young women who supposedly piloted a boat in the Dunkirk Evacuation. Although it proved a complete misapprehension, the story becomes the basis for a fictional film with some possible appeal. As Cole labors to write the script with her new colleagues such as Tom Buckley (Sam Claflin), veteran actor Ambrose Hilliard (Bill Nighy) must accept that his days as a leading man are over as he joins the project. Together, this disparate trio must struggle against such complications such as sexism against Cole, jealous relatives, the drive to make the American movie public react n support of England in the war effort, and political interference from the Secretary of War (Jeremy Irons) in their artistic decisions even as London endures the bombs of the enemy. In the face of those challenges, they share a hope to contribute something meaningful in this time of war and in their own lives.

The film has complex characterizations (Rachel Stirling is brilliant in what at first seems a minor but controlling role, Eddie Marsan has a meaningful cameo, Helen McCrory as Eddie Marsan's meddling sister) and the entire supporting cast is superb. Yes, it is a film about making a film, but in the setting chosen it works splendidly well.