Review of Their Finest (2017) by Dave M — 13 Apr 2017

London. 1940. The Blitz. One year into World War II, all of England, especially the capital, was subjected to nightly bombings by the German Air Force, attempting to soften up England for an amphibious invasion or force the British into a negotiated peace. Hitler's Luftwaffe targeted wartime industries, as well as population centers, hoping to demoralize the British people, but the English were resolute. New British Prime Minister Winston Churchill encouraged his people with a speech to Parliament in which he said, "Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves, that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, This was their finest hour." British propagandists used the medium of film to help Churchill in his efforts to maintain morale. Borrowing that last phrase from Churchill's speech (and tweaking it to make it into a movie reference), Lissa Evans' 2009 novel "Their Finest Hour and a Half" tells the fictional story of a British Ministry of Information team making a dramatic film in the hopes of boosting morale in Britain - and maybe help convince the U.S. to enter the war and help the British defeat Nazi Germany. The 2017 comedy-drama-romance "Their Finest" (R, 1:57) is the film version of Evans' story about the making of that propaganda film.

Catrin Cole (Gemma Arterton) is struggling. Besides enduring the Blitz with her fellow Londoners, she is struggling financially with her starving artist husband, Ellis (Jack Huston), and struggling to be taken seriously as a writer, in spite of her gender. The British Ministry of Information has come to realize that some of their scripts need a feminine touch and Catrin is hired based on her work in a newspaper. It's a big step forward in her career - and a chance to help pay the rent for her London apartment. Although some of the powers that be are less than respectful regarding Catrin's contributions, her writing partners, Tom Buckley (Sam Claflin) and Raymond Parfitt (Paul Ritter), accept her as part of the team.

As the ministry is searching for a feature film idea that would boost morale around the country, Catrin comes across the story of twin sisters who took their father's fishing boat and sailed across the English Channel to participate in the famous (and, in this story, very recent) Dunkirk evacuation. Catrin soon learns that the newspaper account of the sisters' role in the evacuation had been exaggerated and they had never even made it to Dunkirk. Although the issue gives her pause, Catrin pitches the more heroic version of the twins' story, the ministry buys in, a producer comes on board and everyone gets to work.

Under the watchful eye of a disagreeable ministry representative (Rachael Stirling) and in the midst of micromanaging from the higher-ups in the ministry, Catrin, Buckley and Raymond punch up the sisters' story even further and continue to revise their script on location. The sisters' real-life father ends up appearing in the film as a drunk uncle who was asleep below deck when the ladies sailed for Dunkirk. Cast as the uncle is an arrogant past-his-prime movie star named Ambrose Hilliard (Bill Nighy), who swallows his pride to accept the role... but still remains his old, difficult self on set. The British Secretary of War (Jeremy Irons) wants the film to reach American audiences as well, so he forces a late addition to the cast - an American pilot (Jake Lacy) who made a name for himself as a volunteer flying with the RAF, but who has no acting ability... at all. Also on set, there's romance in the air between Catrin and Buckley.

"Their Finest" is entertaining and enlightening, but eventually descends into melodrama. The lighthearted moments are frequent and effective (especially in Nighy's expert hands) and the story helps bring to light the challenges of working women during WWII, as well as the harsh realities of civilian life during the Blitz. Unfortunately, the excellent script by Gaby Chiappe and the fine direction by Lone Scherfig become less impressive in the film's third act, which feels contrived and unnecessarily maudlin. "Their Finest" might not be their finest, but it's worth a look. "B".