Their Finest (2017)- BFI London Film Festival 2016

110min

Genre:      Comedy, Drama, Romance, War

Director:   Lone Scherfig

Cast:        Gemma Arterton, Sam Claflin, Bill Nighy…and more

Writers:    Gaby Chiappe and Lissa Evans

-Synopsis-

British World War II dramedy starring Gemma Arterton as a London-based young Welsh writer in 1940, whose life is transformed when she’s hired by the UK government and the British film industry to help write a morale-boosting propaganda film at the height of the “The Blitz”, in a “battle of the sexes” comedy/drama with a romantic edge from director Lone Scherfig.

After a couple of decades directing Danish dramas and comedies on film and TV, Scherfig got a chance to exercise her love for all things traditionally British through films like ‘An Education’ and ‘The Riot Club’ in more recent years. And now thanks to a BBC Films-led co-production and an adaptation of the Lissa Evans novel ‘Their Finest Hour And A Half’; Scherfig lets her anglophilia run wild in this charm-filled comedy/drama with a hint of romance, set in the most definitive period in our recent British history.

Gemma Arterton stars as young Welshwoman and writer “Catrin Cole”; a woman in a man’s world hired to write women’s dialogue, also derisively know as “the slop”, who gets the chance to co-write a galvanising feelgood movie about the heroic evacuation at Dunkirk. Now teamed up with experienced writers like the arrogant “Tom Buckley” (Sam Claflin), who is reluctant to work with or take input from a woman; “Catrin” struggles to balance her personal life with office gender politics, and wrangling actors which include washed-up old ham “Ambrose Hilliard”, gloriously played by Bill Nighy, whose personality is matched only by his ego.

Scherfig tries to pack quite a bit into this seemingly simple light-hearted romantic comedy/drama; no doubt ‘Their Finest’ is a fetching period comedy with quirky characters and self-referential humour, and an element of the screwball comedy about it too. But it traffics-in more serious apropos themes like female empowerment,  depicting  working women who were met with condescension by insecure men, even though their roles were crucial to the war effort and proved a moderate but temporary social leveller.

At heart this is also an ode to wartime Britain and a filmmaker’s love-letter to classic filmmaking, where film is the saviour and writers are the heroes; set in the “Golden Age” of movies and in this case the classic British film industry during the war, when films were considered strategically important by the authorities who were heavily involved in them, as were the Nazi brass on the other side. With weekly audiences of up to 30 million people, cinema was essential not only for morale, but as a political tool in both  “Blighty” and across the pond, making movies a matter of life and death.

‘Their Finest’ is a rather safe and banal crowd-pleaser, there’s plenty of charm but it’s all rather familiar and has no real edge, and even becomes saccharine in the third act, so don’t expect to be particularly moved or excited. But you can expect to be entertained, by a visual feast  featuring impressive production and costume design for a modest budget, and of course the light tone of a film with plenty of humour, particularly in the first two acts.

Given the setting of the film, ‘Their Finest’ has a measure of pathos too, particularly in its depiction of the frequent Nazi bombings of London and its tragic human toll; but it only skims the surface of the true horrors and the steely determination with which the British public confronted them. And being a drum-banging patriotic British piece, it certainly doesn’t illuminate the historical context or address the retaliatory Allied bombings of Germany, such as Hamburg and Dresden which were far bloodier.

Indeed the all the drama in ‘Their Finest’ is rather innocuous and sanitised, and more focused on the 1940s “battle of the sexes” and individual character relationships than anything else, plus a quaint but exhausted British rom-com dynamic. But the film only really shines when looking at all those elements through a comedic filter, and one so quintessentially British that it’s bound to be a hit with US audiences, not to mention the inside jokes and the “movie within a movie” element which the film industry can’t help but love.

The Bottom Line…

Despite its several more serious components and an unconvincing half-hearted attempt at real pathos, ‘Their Finest’ doesn’t really impress in the dramatic stakes; but thanks to a story stuffed with charm and quintessentially British humour, Scherfig manages to craft an entertaining period crowd-pleaser with a message. This ain’t exactly groundbreaking original fare, but thanks to a grounded and sympathetic lead performance from Arterton, plus a scenery-eating, scene-stealing comedy master-class from Bill Nighy, ‘Their Finest’ is light-hearted entertainment worth your while.

Similar films you may like (Home Video)

Dad’s Army (2016)

Re-imagining of the classic British TV show and 1971 film, following the exploits of a ragtag platoon of elderly home guard soldiers in small-town coastal Britain as they hunt for a German spy and handle a glamorous visiting reporter at the end of World War II.

Directed by Oliver Parker and starring Toby Jones, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Bill Nighy among others.

Comments

comments

Comments are closed.