Sundance Review: THEIR FINEST Takes a Unique Look at WWII
I love movies about making movies, and I also love historical fiction. and I'm also a big fan of the director, Lone Scherfig, who also directed An Education. So needless to say, I was really looking forward to seeing this movie.
Their Finest stars Gemma Arterton as Catrin Cole, a quiet but determined woman living in London and trying to earn a living during the Blitz of World War II. After taking a job writing women’s dialogue for war propaganda films, she hears about a story in the news that could be material for a film. As she learns to navigate the male-dominated professional world, Catrin must deal with bossy colleagues (Sam Claflin), self-centered actors (Bill Nighy), and almost nightly bombings of the city.
Any film enthusiast will appreciate the behind-the-scenes look at early filmmaking and the role films played during World War II. These propaganda films, while cheesy today, provided not only entertainment, but also information the government wanted to quickly share with the people.
Arterton’s character Catrin is immediately likable, and we want her to succeed as she earns the respect of her male colleagues throughout the production of the film. Nighy does a fantastic job of playing the comic relief: an older, washed-up actor who can’t find work, but still has a massive ego.
In addition to the great cast of characters, this film did a fantastic job of balancing precariously between comedy and tragedy. When I saw it, the director gave a Q&A afterwards. She told us she didn’t want to tell a story about the devastation of war while everything remains unrealistically happy on the home front. This is certainly the case, but, as Catrin Cole learns, when entertaining and inspiring an audience, it’s important to have moments of fun as well. There were times when this film that were so sad, I couldn’t help but cry. But every time that happened, not two minutes later, I would be laughing again at a perfectly-delivered joke. This happened more than once.
Their Finest is a film about a film, which has been done many times before. But what’s unique about this one in particular is how remarkably the exterior film mirrors the themes and even the plot of the interior one. It is so well-executed that it will have audiences eating out of its hand. I hope it gets the recognition it deserves.
