Their Finest


Their Finest is a 2016 British war comedy-drama film directed by Lone Scherfig and written by Gaby Chiappe, based on the 2009 novel Their Finest Hour and a Half by Lissa Evans. The film stars Gemma Arterton, Sam Claflin, Bill Nighy, Jack Huston, Jake Lacy, Richard E. Grant, Henry Goodman, Rachael Stirling, Eddie Marsan, Helen McCrory, and Claudia Jessie. The film tells the story of a British Ministry of Information film team making a morale-boosting film about the Dunkirk evacuation during the Battle of Britain and the London Blitz.
Principal photography began early-September 2015 in London. It was screened at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival. It was released in the United Kingdom on 21 April 2017, by Lionsgate.
The film is set during the time after Dunkirk when the Battle of Britain is turning into the Blitz. The British government is desperately seeking to shore up morale of the general population and pursuing a long strategy of getting the US to join the war and defeat Hitler. The Ministry of Information used artistic talent to pursue these ends.

Plot

In 1940 London, Catrin Cole is taken on at the Ministry of Information to write film scripts with a convincing female angle. Her husband, Ellis, is a war artist.
Catrin researches a story about twins Lily and Rose Starling, who participated in the Dunkirk evacuation. She discovers they did not in fact reach Dunkirk because their boat had broken down five miles off Southend-on-Sea, and was towed back by a tug returning from the evacuation.
Ellis tells Catrin he cannot afford to keep her with him in London. She insists she can pay her way.
At the ministry Catrin omits the breakdown of the boat in her account. The film is given the go-ahead with scriptwriters Tom Buckley and Raymond Parfitt, and Catrin to provide female dialogue referred to as "slop". The film is given the name "The Nancy Starling" after the boat, in turn named for the twins' mother.
Catrin buys a painting from Ellis, saying she is not leaving London. She tells Buckley it is the girl's story but he is not allowing them any action, writing it all for the men instead. The writing team is visited by Roger Swain, head of film at the ministry who has learned about the boat's breakdown and is considering pulling the film because it is claimed to be based on a true story when it isn't. Buckley retorts that they shouldn't say it's based on a true story, thenrather that it's based on a hundred, or a thousand, true stories. Parfitt suggests 338,000, being the number of soldiers who were brought back. Swain is convinced. Ellis receives a commission to document bomb damage in the provinces followed by an exhibition at the National Gallery. Catrin says she will come for the exhibition opening.
Actor Ambrose Hilliard is offered the comedic part of aged, drunken Uncle Frank by his agent, Sammy Smith. He refuses out of pride, but, after Sammy's death in an air raid, Hilliard is persuaded by Sammy's sister Sophie, who has taken over the agency.
Filming begins in Devon. Rewrites accommodate an American character added by order of the Secretary of State for War to appeal to the United States whom they were trying to entice as an ally. Catrin misses Ellis's exhibition opening. Before leaving to see the exhibition's final day, Catrin reveals to Phyl that she and Ellis are not married but pretend to be for propriety. In London she surprises Ellis having sex with another woman and returns to Devon.
Buckley has found out about Catrin's non-marriage. He proposes to her, but she refuses and they argue. Back in London for the studio scenes, Buckley has been unable to write a satisfactory ending. Catrin spends all night in the office writing the ending, and then types out a mock script of their quarrel making her warm feelings for him clear. She finds her home has been destroyed by a bomb in the night.
At the studio Buckley has read Catrin's ending and mock script. They talk, and kiss. Catrin is called to tweak the script, Buckley says he will deal with it. As he walks away a lighting rig collapses and the lights go out. When power is restored, Buckley is dead beneath the rig.
The film sequence of the freeing of the boat's propellor has not been completed and it seems there is no actor for the role, until Catrin suggests that Rose do it.
Sophie Smith visits her client Hilliard in hospital and proposes that he recuperate in her home.
Catrin's absence is noted at the premiere. Hilliard visits Catrin to enlist her writing help in a new film. She says she cannot do that any more and breaks down crying. He tells her that both he and she have been given opportunities because young men are dying, and to deny those opportunities is to give death dominion over life. He advises her to watch their film. She does, and is moved by the film and the audience's reactions. She returns to the scriptwriters' office to work on the new film.

Cast

The main story
Actors in Carrot Film
Actors in "The Nancy Starling"
On 14 April 2015 it was announced that Gemma Arterton, Sam Claflin, and Bill Nighy would star in the World War II–set romantic comedy film based on the 2009 novel Their Finest Hour and a Half by Lissa Evans. BBC Films developed the film, hiring Lone Scherfig to direct the film which was adapted by Gaby Chiappe. BBC Films would co-finance the film, which Number 9 Films and Wildgaze Films would produce with its Stephen Woolley and Amanda Posey, while HanWay Films would handle the international rights. On 10 September 2015 Jack Huston and Jake Lacy joined the film along with Richard E. Grant, Helen McCrory, Eddie Marsan, Rachael Stirling, and Henry Goodman. The production was financially supported by the Welsh Government's "Media Investment Budget".

Filming

on the film began in early September 2015, in London. Locations used included: in Pembrokeshire, Freshwater West beach - which stood in for Dunkirk - Porthgain harbour, the Trecwn valley, and the Cresselly Arms at Cresswell Quay; in Swansea, the Guildhall and Grand Theatre; and in London, Bedford Square in Bloomsbury.

Release

In May 2015, Lionsgate acquired UK distribution rights to the film. The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on 10 September 2016. Shortly after, EuropaCorp acquired the distribution rights to the film in the United States and France. STX Entertainment will distribute the film for EuropaCorp.
On 13 October 2016, Their Finest celebrated its European premiere at the BFI London Film Festival. The film was scheduled to be released in the United States on 24 March 2017 but was pushed back to 7 April 2017. It was released in the United Kingdom on 21 April 2017.

Critical response

On the review-aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 90%, based on 163 reviews, with an average rating of 7.19/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Carried along by a winning performance from Gemma Arterton, Their Finest smoothly combines comedy and wartime drama to crowd-pleasing effect." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 76 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
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". Wendy Ide of The Observer praised the "rattling, screwball rhythm" of Catrin and Tom's "banter" but noted that some of the plot could have been "more persuasively developed" and that without the twist of Tom's death the film "could have torpedoed itself with predictability". She praised that twist as the film's "boldest decision... the audience of an outcome we are expecting in a way that nobody sees coming", as well as calling the "film-within-a-film structure... a neat device".
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... depth and pathos". Robbie Collin of the Telegraph called it a "handsome, rousing, rigorous entertainment you can’t help but play along with" and "Sparklingly adapted", with "bristly chemistry" between the two leads. 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".