Their Finest is definitely Bill Nighy's Finest

Sam Claflin, Gemma Arterton & Bill Nighy

The value of the British film industry to the war effort in the Second World War cannot be underestimated. The great Michael Balcon of Ealing Studios was the driving force behind a wave of films which, with the support of the War Office, united the nation after the miracle of Dunkirk.

There were those, such as the Northcliffe Press and some members of the peerage and nobility, who felt that it was not our war and we should basically leave the Germans to it. However there was also a feeling that the ruling classes were mismanaging the war and leading us to certain defeat. It was films such as The Foreman Went to France (1942), Nine Men (1943), and, especially, San Demetrio London (1943), which tapped into the solidarity of the ordinary British men and women. This national consensus went a long way to maintaining resolve in the face of desperate losses and ultimately winning the war.

Their Finest is a touching, bittersweet romance very much in the mould of those Balcon films. Former secretary Catrin Cole (Gemma Arterton) gets a job at the Ministry of Information writing propaganda short films. She is seconded to a major studio – presumably Korda Studios – to work with bright young scriptwriter Tom Buckley (Sam Claflin); they need someone to write the ‘slop’ – women’s dialogue – to make the films more appealing to women on the home front.

Catrin comes across a story of two young women who took part in the rescue of Dunkirk. The story is less heroic in truth than it appears in the media but that doesn’t stop them. To paraphrase John Ford, when the legend is bigger than the truth they decide to print the legend.

Their Finest concentrates on the making of this film. The only available star is a fading matinee idol (Bill Nighy) and there are lots of other compromises, not least fitting in an American war hero to placate US audiences. But the make do and mend nature of the filming process becomes a metaphor for the state of the nation.

The performances from Arterton and Claflin are very good and a host of starry supporting turns – Eddie Marsan, Jeremy Irons, Richard E. Grant and others – all do very well. This however is Bill Nighy’s picture from top to bottom; he is a fine actor but I doubt he will ever be better. He perfectly captures the ego, the venality, and ultimately the fragility of the fading star. Terrific stuff.

Lone Scherfig’s direction is perfectly judged. She gets the tone of the film exactly right, it is never maudlin or mawkish. This is a period where the threat of sudden and violent death is ever-present and this makes for a balancing undertone to the inevitable romance between Arterton and Claflin. That said, the film avoids the more obvious clichés.

Editor Lucia Zuchetti also does a wonderful job in capturing the mood of the piece. She has an unerring eye for the grace notes; the realisation of the Arterton – Claflin romance, for example, or a surprisingly heartfelt wrap party in a village pub. It is these details that make Their Finest such a rich and rewarding experience.

The final sequence where we watch the audience watch the movie we have just seen made is magical stuff, very reminiscent of Terence Davies’ The Long Day Closes (1992). It is here that we finally understand that ultimately Their Finest is a film about the transcendent power of cinema and it captures it perfectly.