Their Finest

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.

It's a movie within a movie. I feel in general, a movie about movies is a good topic for a movie. People love to hear stories about how the movies works. I know personally I'm a sucker for this type of drama.

Based on a book called Their Finest Hour and a Half, which I think is a better title, Their Finest stars Gemma Arterton in a movie that takes place during World War 2 in England, when women join the workforce in order keep the world going that was coming to a halt do to the Blitzkrieg. In this case Arterton's character Catrin Cole, a woman working for a newspaper that leads to an opportunity to write a screenplay for a movie.

What I like about the movie is that it's a funny story about how a screenplay is created. They basically hired Catrin Cole to tell the story of the war from a women's perspective, namely the true story of a pair of twins who attempted to use their boat to help rescue soldiers in France, but the true story is not good enough propaganda to get the citizens of Britain into the cause, so she has to embellish what happen.

As the writing progressed, they keep getting stopped by someone, weather it was the producer or The Secretary of War to add new things so that they can appeal to the masses, a very interesting process made hilarious by the movie.

The whole film is a satire on the film industry of 1940s Great Britain that's still true today. Their Finest also has some romance in it, as Cartin becomes attracted to her fellow writer on the screenplay, Tom Buckley. The film is also a good example about how female roles in society started to shift during World War II.

Bill Nighy was as fun to watch as I was told. He plays an aging actor finding his popularity is stuck on something he did years ago, and like Catin finds an opportunity within the war.

Overall, I really enjoined the movie. Gemma Arterton made a really good lead actress and the movie altogether was a great story.

http://cinemagardens.com

"They're afraid they won't be able to put us back in the box when this is over, and it makes them belligerent." Phyl Moore (Rachael Stirling)

Phyl is spot on about the focus of Their Finest, a period piece (1940) about the British film industry's part in supporting WWII. The heart of this sometimes comic romance is Catrin's (Gemma Arterton) emergence from secretary to writer in a time when women were expected to be no more than secretaries. Of course, they would no more be "in the box" after the war.

Comic moments are plentiful, especially when aging actor Ambrose Hilliard (Bill Nighy at his best) is on screen. He is in a company producing a propaganda film to support the war and perhaps induce the USA to enter the war. Although seeing the inventive ways the industry created special effects and worked through themes would be a reason for a cinephile to see this film, the higher takeaway is the growing empowerment of Catrin, and all women, not just in Britain but everywhere.

She has a growing affection for fellow writer Ellis (Jack Huston—Yes, that Huston grandson), slow and so British reserved that it is one of the best romances of the year. Although I have reservations about a woman needing a man to be successful, this romance is authentic because it grows like ripening fruit, no passion or flowery bombast to speed it along.

Beyond the romance and the mechanics of early filmmaking, the art of writing is satisfactorily treated, in fact one of the first times I have seen it depicted as a communal effort. Besides, I love seeing ideas and dialogue worked out among the team without overly-dramatic flourishes but rather with the kind of quiet discovery that may have occurred with any successful team effort.

Their Finest is part old-fashioned filmmaking with sentiment and sense overlaid by a progressive theme showing the ascendancy of women in WWII beyond "Rosie the Riveter." You'll cry a little, you'll laugh a little, and you'll nod your head a little in admiration of the contributions made in big wars by this marvelous art form, film.

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.

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.