![]() ![]() Cole’s arc as a screenwriter is built around her ability to add shades of depth and intimacy so that roles like Hillard’s drunken Uncle Frank feel essential to the overall piece. Life - especially during a period of such strife - provides no such closure. Buckley remarks at one point that we’re drawn to the drama of movies because they provide structure and catharsis, that we’re willing to handle even the worst catastrophes in that context because we know they’re building toward a resolution. The film’s central theme is that struggle for meaning. Ellis’ injuries makes him ineligible for service, and the lack of paying prospects in the art world puts a serious strain on his ego. Bill Nighy’s screen legend Ambrose Hillard feels suffocated by the limited resources of wartime filmmaking and insulted by the implication that he might be past his prime. It’s about the roles we take on in times of crisis and the frustration we feel when we’re not useful. Or did they? As Cole navigates air strikes, executive meddling, and a crumbling marriage to artist Ellis (Jack Huston), she crafts an exhilarating story about women willing to rise above the slop.īut Their Finest isn’t just about women in the workplace it’s about all of us. Their script fictionalizes the real-life exploits of a pair of twins (Lily and Francesca Knight) who stole their father’s fishing boat in order to aid the evacuation at Dunkirk. Desperate to inspire a populace under siege by the Blitz, the government commissions its film office to produce an uplifting story of heroics, something with “authenticity and optimism.” All the young industry men are off fighting, of course, so the suits tap an overqualified secretary with an ear for dialogue (Gemma Arterton’s Catrin Cole) to write the “slop” (the parts of the film aimed at women) while screenwriters Tom Buckley (Sam Claflin) and Raymond Parfitt (Paul Ritter) do the heavier structural lifting. Their Finest is one of those films, a funny and charming look at the British Ministry of Information during World War II. Many of our best war films trade the violence of combat for the political intrigue and existential romance that shape that violence and give it weight. ![]()
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