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Trust Weighted
Great
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66Trust Points
Wick's Review
Summary - Great 4.0
Their Finest is an exceptionally fine movie, a post-modern take on the decidedly earnest Greatest Generation, British variety. Unfortunately, it takes exceptional effort to find a theater where it’s playing.
Speaking of exceptional, Gemma Arterton, Sam Clafin and Bill Nighy are exceptionally fine moviestars. Arterton has exceptionally well-formed lips, from which subtly smart dialogue naturally emerges. Clafin’s refined yet rakish good looks mark him as a post-modern Cary Grant, while Nighy remains perhaps the most exceptionally charismatic actor working today, especially when he gets to play a self-infatuated star.
Their characters are part of the cast and crew of a Ministry of Information propaganda movie about the evacuation of Dunkirk. Arterton seizes the opportunity to become a screenwriter, and to properly feature female characters in the movie. This all creates ample opportunity for romance, humor and pathos, that last as the Luftwaffe’s death-from-above ravages central London during the Blitz. It’s a heady, sexy concoction.
Acting - Really Great 4.5
Behind the scenes
- Gemma Arterton is equally smart and sexy as an unlikely screenwriter in the man’s world of WWII London. Arterton has matured since her big-budget Prince of Persia days. She’s no less enchanting, but now more wizened.
- Sam Claflin has charisma to spare, as he demonstrated in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2. Leading-man status could be in the offing.
- Jack Huston underwhelms as a self-absorbed artist, as he did in American Hustle.
- Helen McCrory jumps offscreen as an almost elderly talent agent. This great actress has 66 credits to her name on IMDb.
- Eddie Marsan is ultra-sophisticated as a talent agent.
- Rachael Stirling & Richard E. Grant fulminate effectively as mucky-mucks from the Ministry of Information.
- Paul Ritter is increasingly engaging as a screenwriter with a secret.
- Jeremy Irons delivers his usual gravitas as the Secretary of War.
Actors in “The Nancy Starling”
- Bill Nighy steals the show as a minor moviestar with a major ego. The role suits him to a tee, being of a piece with his aging rockstar turn in Love Actually.
- Jake Lacy, Claudia Jessie, Stephanie Hyam, Hubert Burton
Male Stars - Really Great 4.5
Female Stars - Really Great 4.5
Female Costars - Great 4.0
Male Costars - Great 4.0
Film - Great 4.0
Pity that Their Finest didn’t keep the full title of its source novel. Their Finest Hour and a Half deftly suggests the wit shot through this exceptionally fine film.
Nonetheless, Their Finest works on several levels, as a home-front war movie, WWII period piece, engaging romance, and not least as a love-letter of sorts to moviemaking. Vain actors, put-upon writers, demanding producers and compromises galore get exposed, and yet the show goes on, as it must.