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.

Dwayne is fast, Charlize is furious...Vin's just dull.

Dwayne Johnson and the F&F crew

The definition of a movie star, according to William Goldman, is someone whose name can fill in the blank in the following sentence. ‘Hey, let’s throw the kids in the car and go to the movies the new ‘blank’ film opens today’. There is no doubt that these days Dwayne Johnson’s name fits comfortably into that sentence.

The former WWE titan known as The Rock may have the least starry name ever but he’s a huge attraction and, more important, he knows what is required of him. To put it bluntly, he is a brand and he knows it. Therefore, he will do all he can to promote his brand values. Johnson is an enormously likable screen presence with a huge amount of charisma; his star power glows at a pretty high wattage and audiences love him for it. Importantly, while he is also doing all of this, he has no qualms about sending himself up as in last year’s Central Intelligence. He gives the impression of being the luckiest guy alive and having the time of his life.

It’s no coincidence that the addition of Johnson to the moribund Fast and Furious franchise in its fifth outing rebooted it into the box office behemoth it has become. Throwing Jason Statham into the mix for the following movie only added to the success.

Now we have Fast and Furious 8 which, like all the other titles in the franchise, has had a meticulously orchestrated publicity campaign. That’s why it was so surprising, towards the end of shooting, to see a Twitter storm surround Johnson who criticised one of his other stars – later identified as Vin Diesel – on social media. The nub and the gist of the argument was that Johnson and the rest of the cast were doing all the heavy lifting while Diesel was behaving like, to quote Johnson, ‘a candy ass’. It was a shock to see one star criticise another, but especially in the light of Johnson’s good guy persona.

Although Diesel has his name above the door in this franchise, the star dynamic is becoming increasingly lop-sided. If you want to judge the merits of their relative careers look at their box offices; Johnson is a guaranteed hit maker whereas Diesel can’t open a picture unless he’s in a fast car. In fact, I rather suspect in his case, the car’s the star.

Diesel has been in all but one of the F&F movies but he is increasingly the weak link. While Johnson, Statham, and the rest of the crew look like they are having the time of their lives Diesel comes off like Eeyore with a V8.

Everyone else is playing panto and Vin looks like he’s trying to play Hamlet. This would be okay if he wasn’t such a monotonously dull actor. You know he is emoting because he either SHOUTS VERY LOUDLY or mumbles very quietly. He has all the charm and personality of a house brick. It falls to Diesel to go on about the values of family and deliver the endless eulogies to the late Paul Walker which have become a disturbing trope of this series. Meanwhile everyone else has fun.

It’s no coincidence surely that buzz-killing Vin is shunted off screen early doors. Guest villain Charlize Theron, as a super hacker, turns him against the crew thanks to a bit of emotional blackmail. That means he does his stuff solo while the rest create mayhem, effectively turning him into a guest star in his own franchise.

The plot, such as it is, involves Theron stealing some nuclear missiles and the sub they come in which, if nothing else, gives rise to the most flat-out absurd chase sequence as the F&F crew and their souped-up vehicles are pursued by the aforementioned submarine across the frozen wastes.

As a set piece it works well, as does a New York chase sequence which will make you very suspicious of your car if it has an auto drive function. The most fun however comes in a final nod to John Woo and Hard Boiled in which Statham, complete with a baby in a baby-carrier, creates havoc on Theron’s spy plane.

Then of course Diesel has to come back and suck the life out of everything. Him aside Fast and Furious 8 is a fun movie; there are neat guest spots from Theron and Kurt Russell, Helen Mirren does her Pat Butcher impression, and newcomer Scott Eastwood looks uncannily like his father in his younger days. It does exactly what it says on the tin.

The only concern about the end of the film – apart from the fact that the plot is left completely unresolved, is the fear that Dwayne Johnson may not be back for the next one. Hopefully this is no more than a cunning ruse otherwise we are left with emo-Vin which doesn’t bear thinking about.