Spirited Endurance Makes Up The Backbone Of The Enjoyable Their Finest

I'm sure you, whilst walking out of Dunkirk two months back,  thought to yourself "Wow, a whole movie about the Dunkirk evacuation! I wonder, are there any other recent movies covering that subject matter?" Turns out, there was another motion picture this year all about the Dunkirk evacuations, albeit Their Finest covers what happened after that massive evacuation effort. Specifically, it's about some British film executives wanting to create a film based on events from the Dunkirk evacuation that can help inspire the war-weary masses both in England and in countries abroad, specifically America.

The usual crew of writers for this studio's projects are called in, and that includes Tom Buckley (Sam Claflin), but they've also brought in a fresh face to help with the "slop", a term used to describe dialogue for female characters. That duty falls to Catrin Cole (Gemma Arterton) who ends up taking far more responsibilities in the production including interview the two women whose tale of trying to save soldiers stuck at Dunkirk will be heavily embellished for the motion picture itself. As the filming of the movie goes on and plenty of other problems arise, Cole will find herself taking on even more duties on the film crew as the pressure for a movie to deliver some hope to the populace of her home country who are being consumed by an ever growing sense of dismay.

Though the devastation of the then-ongoing events of World War II is a common topic of conversation between its characters, while bombs from enemy planes are dropping on London at a regular rate, Their Finest manages to be quite the chipper and pleasing motion picture. It accomplishes this without eschewing the hardships endured by individuals in World War II thankfully with Their Finest focusing specifically on Catrin going through the difficulties many women in both European and American society were experiencing in this era as women had to take on numerous previously male-dominated jobs while young men were away fighting in World War II itself. Obviously, having women suddenly defy traditional gender norms and occupy roles in male-dominated spaces was going to bring about a lot of turmoil for the women just trying to put bread on the table in times of hardship.

Such a societal skirmish is told through Catrin Cole's perspective as she's trying to get her voice heard and make an impact on this movie she's helping to write and she turns out to be a wonderful character to lead the project since Gaby Chiappe's screenplay allows for Catrin to become a fully-realized individual, one with equal measures of perseverance and creative moxy running through her blood. The character is portrayed by Gemma Arterton whose a full-blown revelation in the role. I've only seen Arterton in thankless supporting roles in ho-hum blockbusters like Prince of Persia and Clash of The Titans (neither of which should be thought of optimal acting showcases) before this so imagine my delighted surprise to see her compliment her well-written role with a thoroughly engrossing performance full of smaller thoughtful details that just ooze with personality. She's also got great and realistic chemistry with her co-stars, particularly in her interactions with Bill Nighy (who I'll talk more about shortly).

Excellent work from Arterton in the lead role turns out to not be an anomaly as far as the cast goes as the supporting cast is chock full of lovely turns from notable actors. Sam Claflin's character is hindered by Chiappe's screenplay playing Tom Buckley's character arc of being more close-minded (at one point Tom outright mansplains to Catrin what women really and only want out of movies) to being fully woke in a manner that struck me as too abrupt but Claflin does have a devilish charm to his performance that's irresistible and I like how his rapid-fire dialogue mimics the speech patterns prominently found in cinema the 1940's. Bill Nighy, in a prominent supporting role, is loads of fun as an aging actor who ends up deeply connecting with both this inspirational Dunkirk movie and Catrin. Nighy gets some of the best comedic moments of the motion picture but a pathos-laced climactic speech he gives to Catrin reminds one that Nighy really can pull off gravitas with true skill. It does feel like supporting characters played by the likes of Helen McCrory and Richard E. Grant could have used more in the way of personality though at least the actors behind such roles give their parts their all.

While the cinematography and score on Their Finest (duties performed by Sebastian Blenkov and Rachel Portman respectively) are serviceable but admittedly not outstanding, the overall directing by Lone Scherfig does deserve extra kudos as she lends a strong hand behind the camera that translates into a number of mighty fine performances and executing moments in Gaby Chiappe's writing that could have come off as "sappy" in a satisfying manner.  Further small but oh so smart details in the movie, like how the actual Dunkirk movie the characters are making up ends up looking exactly like a typical piece of 1940's cinema, help reinforce why the utterly charming Lone Scherfig feature Their Finest ends up being such mighty uplifting storytelling.