Finch (2021)
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Finch Movie Review
Finch is a 2021 post-apocalyptic science fiction drama film directed by Miguel Sapochnik and starring Tom Hanks. It is such a beautiful movie.
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“Moving at night presents that which is not predictable.
People“
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It follows a robot that lives on a post-apocalyptic earth which was built to protect the life of his dying creator’s beloved dog. The robot learns about love, friendship, and the meaning of human life. I was surprised that this movie is actually all about the robot, even more so than the dog and the main human character. I mostly liked that choice as the exploration of what it means to be human was familiar here, but definitely very emotionally impactful.
In an age of epic, long and action-driven SF post-apocalyptic features, it was refreshing to witness something completely different as this movie is basically a drama with SF elements. It is leisurely paced to a fault, but its nostalgic, melancholic and very human tone made for a truly touching viewing experience.
In fact, a couple of scenes almost made me cry. I would even go so far to say that Finch is the live-action equivalent of a Pixar movie – a high-concept story with memorable characters and astounding emotional engagement. It lacks the world building of the aforementioned studio, but its heart is in the right place.
The sequence where the dog refuses to bring the ball to the robot was very deep and interesting. The statement here is probably that the dogs fall in love only with somebody real and human as they need to sense their owner’s smell and hear their natural voice. That is how I interpreted the sequence, but this theme was somewhat discarded later down the line when the dog ultimately accepts the robot, but it was necessary for the story to end on a happy, hopeful note nonetheless and that scene was also very endearing.
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We get only a couple of explanations about what happened to humanity. The solar flare idea was fine, but I personally wanted a bit more exposition. But the movie is all about the characters and all three are truly wonderful. The flick has no other characters at all, so it benefits from incredible care and attention devoted to these three very different figures who represent three different takes on humanity and life.
I wanted a bit more from the dog himself, but still Goodyear is quite endearing and his fights with the robot were a comedic highlight of the picture. The movie showcasing just how important dogs are to humans was truly beautiful to witness.
Tom Hanks himself is obviously typecast, but for a reason as he excels at these very human stories playing amazing human beings. His character here is given a solid backstory and Hanks is particularly adept at playing these calm scenes full of nuanced emotion. He was truly the perfect choice for this very meditative film.
The highlight, however, is Jeff. This robot is incredible. The design that they gave him is far from original, but the choice to give him only 70 percent of information uploaded was an ingenious idea that led to this interesting childlike personality. The heart and humor of the movie lay in the scenes where Finch just thought him how to do things and the robot messed up. This is one of the best robot arcs in quite a while.
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Finch is nothing to write home about in terms of the visuals. The typically washed up, desolate post-apocalyptic surroundings are nothing too interesting, but the score is solid and the directing is fine. The pacing isn’t great and the movie’s runtime was unnecessarily long for such a simple story, but for the most part it held my attention and my smile.
