If I were writing a film, there would be lots more swearing and naughty in it….. but the 1940s weren’t ready for it to be fair….

In the first of two World War 2 based films upcoming for review, I begin with a tiny British film called Their Finest. Now granted, this was a rather unusual choice for review given that the Marvel juggernaut that is Spiderman: Homecoming was destroying all comers who decided to release within the same month as it at the cinema. Well, for my part, the excuse was; it was this or Transformers: The last Knight with over 7458 explosions in the first 10 minutes. Though then later of course, I did see Spiderman and indeed covered it in a review before this film, so what does that say about my priorities?

So Their Finest then, what’s going on? In 1940, a sexy empowered married Welsh woman Catrin Cole (Gemma Arterton) and a screenwriter with a car salesman mustache Tom Buckley (Sam Claflin) get the hots for one another while working together on a British propaganda film about the evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk. Basically this is a film about the subject of another film I’m about to review. This is breaking the fourth wall or something for sure.

Anyway, this all comes about randomly when Catrin looks for work to help pay the bills while her husband is injured and being an artist and whatever else. In other words, she has to become the bread winner of the flat in London. So off she pops to the Ministry of Lies (or Information, whichever you feel works). They generally make films to help the British public feel better at a time of war. Lo and behold after various remarks about her being a woman, she’s involved with scriptwriting with two gents in a small office. She pisses off Bill Nighy who’s playing an old actor who used to be big but still far to up his own arse to notice he’s not really famous any more.

After speaking two sisters who didn’t really go to help bring back the soldiers from Dunkirk, Catrin lies to everyone and in essence gets the story made into a film, presumably to save face or her job. Apparently anything to avoid going back to Wales. Make your own judgements here then….

Anyway, cue the scene for various amounts of sparks, filming, heartfelt moments, deaths and of course a quick sex scene involving Catrin’s husband with another woman. Because why not? Hell they even ensure they get a lesbian character in for good measure because by jove, we all everyone was so understanding in the 1940s after all this weren’t they?

And as you can see here, this is where they get into position 57 in the Karma Sutra….. Good Lord!

So is this Their Finest? Well, ish.

I mean, it’s harmless enough in terms of presentation, story and it’s not badly acted. Quite decent actually for the most part. Sadly though, some of the cliches of the 1940s and the second World War, how women were treated etc, did slightly get on my nerves to start with, but getting past that in the opening 20 minutes or so, it started to get more interesting. I also get the sense that there really wasn’t a huge budget for this film, as it seems at times to be rather lacking.

The small amounts of special effects were good for what they were though, and there were indeed a couple of surprises along the way, though for the most part you could see where it was all going. There is also some good small amounts of humour to give the whole thing some levity so it’s not all doom and gloom.

Bill Nighy’s character arc was actually quite good, as he grew from being a miserable grumpy bugger to being someone who was more understanding and perhaps a touch more human after playing the drunk uncle at sea in the film. He loses his agent and gets a new one, who basically disciplines him and the former agent’s dog too! Quite funny as it goes.

There are a couple of really odd plot points I would question, such as the marriage of the Coles in the first place, as it seems to be a really flimsy ridiculous thing to do, but set in context of the period, you can at least understand why they did what they did. But overall, you’ll carry on to the end, and it will hold your interest for the most part.

So while not “Their Worst”, it’s was just “Their alright”. Nothing to write home about, but certainly not a bad film in any case. Catch when you can on Netflix or otherwise.

Now, the next war film on the docket to review is Dunkirk, and yeah, I have a hell of a lot more to say about that. If you didn’t hate me before, you will after reading that mini meh.