Their Finest: Now a major film starring Gemma Arterton and Bill Nighy

---

The daily threat of the Blitz is rightly given sufficient screen time to feel like an ever-present menace, while wartime London and an idyllic Cornish coast are well realised.

Their Finest review – Bill Nighy, Gemma Arterton and a very British kind of magic

We see the characters and plot of "The Nancy Starling" evolve within Catrin's mind in a series of comic scenes which give Bill Nighy's character, ageing actor Ambrose Hilliard, some of his best moments. In one particularly inspired moment, the continuation of a real conversation between the romantic pair is imagined in the same visual style of the on-screen movie. The writers and director clearly had a lot of fun with these ideas and their execution is spot on.

The creators' love of cinema is realised in a way only possible in a film about film-making and film-watching. The emotions of an audience watching "The Nancy Starling" in the film clearly capture the joy the writers and director take from cinema in general, and it's very infectious!

What was it like to make a film in the Blitz?

Arterton plays the lead role very capably, creating a likable protagonist. Among the most memorable performances, Bill Nighy plays himself very well it's difficult to imagine who could have played him better , and Rachael Stirling shines but is sadly underused. Jake Lacy is also entertaining as the square-jawed American who turns out to be a terrible actor. The film possibly suffers from the distracting addition of star cameos Jeremy Irons popping up here for a single scene , a fault I find particularly noticeable in British films of this style.

Their Finest - Wikipedia

The key fault for me was that the film seemed unsure which of its two main plot-lines, the making of "The Nancy Starling" and the romance between Catrin and Buckley, should take centre-stage. Developing both meant that the beginning and the end of the film suffered. Initially the film needed to introduce lots of only partially related themes and concepts, which made the opening scenes feel artificially and dissatisfyingly forced together.

The need to conclude both threads produced more than a few false endings which certainly made the film feel its length. The competition between story-lines also meant that some of the supporting characters, particularly Jack Huston's suffering artist, did not receive the attention they needed to give enough weight to their plot contributions. Even Buckley, one of the key players, didn't seem quite fleshed out enough, though this is not helped by the poor chemistry between Sam Claflin and Gemma Arterton.

At its best though, "Their Finest" is a wonderful send-up of propaganda movie-making of the s and a worthy war film in its own right. Explore popular and recently added TV series available to stream now with Prime Video. Start your free trial. Find showtimes, watch trailers, browse photos, track your Watchlist and rate your favorite movies and TV shows on your phone or tablet! Watch This Week's Trailer Trailer. English-Language Movie Releases of the Month: Share this Rating Title: Their Finest 6.

Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin.

There was an error trying to load your rating for this title.

Edit Cast Cast overview, first billed only: Tom Buckley Gemma Arterton Catrin Cole Nicholas Murchie Bus Conductor Richard E. Roger Swain Henry Goodman Gabriel Baker Rachael Stirling In the meantime, filming is delayed and a more US-audience-friendly ending is requested by the war ministry to replace the more restrained and subtle original British one. In addition the penultimate sequence of freeing the boat's propellor has still not yet been filmed.

With Hilliard still recovering and Lundbeck now back with his squadron, there seems to be no actor left to play that role. The producers fear the movie will have to be scrapped, but Catrin successfully suggests that one of the twins, Rose, fix the boat's fouled propeller, instead of a male character. She later learns that this scene has made the twin sisters Lily and Rose who inspired the story, to take up war work. After Buckley's death Catrin withdraws from the world of film in shock and grief, and she does not attend its premiere.

A visit from Hilliard to her squalid digs convinces her to return. He is motivated in part to write him fulfilling future roles such as an idea he has for an ex cat burglar turned air-raid warden , having accepted that he can no longer play matinee idol parts. Catrin attends a public screening of "The Nancy Starling" and enjoys watching the visibly moved audience reactions. She sees that a distant shot of her and happily Buckley together has been added to the ending as a tribute.

She heads back to the scriptwriters office, sits down at Buckley's old desk, and starts working on her next film using his old typewriter.

Principal photography on the film began in early September , in London [7] [8] and was partly shot in Pembrokeshire. In May , Lionsgate acquired UK distribution rights to the film.

Share this title

In the British press, Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian called the character of Hilliard "a colossally proportioned scene-stealer" and wrote that "Arterton brings a rather beautiful kind of restraint to her role". However, she praised that twist as the film's "boldest decision Geoffrey Macnab of the Independent wrote that "Some of the in-jokes begin to grate" but called Arterton's performance "well-judged and engaging" and noted the "scene-stealing antics" of Nighy, Lacy and Irons, particularly lauding Hilliard's shift from "comic buffoon He noted Scherfig's direction, with the "broad and rosy spoof" of the film-within-a-film and the gender inequalities of the period left "to squirm away unhindered in the subtext" rather than countered with anachronistic "spiky comebacks".

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Their Finest British theatrical release poster. British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved 25 October Retrieved August 20, Foreign total gross not updated. Retrieved 26 April Retrieved 10 May Toronto International Film Festival. Retrieved 26 July Retrieved 14 September Retrieved 3 January Retrieved 18 May Retrieved 17 October Retrieved 26 January Retrieved 21 April Retrieved 25 April Films directed by Lone Scherfig.

Retrieved from " https: EngvarB from May Use dmy dates from May

• HOLYPOL - Write in the Middle: I
• Memories of the old homestead (1900)
• Him With His Foot in His Mouth (Penguin Modern Classics)
• Morality and Work
• Green Logistics: Improving the Environmental Sustainability of Logistics