The greatest movie ever!

I really don't get the hype.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

In 1940, England needs an inspiring film to uplift the hearts of their people and to influence Americans to enter the war. A brave story appeared in the paper about twin women who rescued soldiers retreating from Dunkirk in a private boat. Catrin Cole (Gemma Arterton) is tasked to interview the women and help turn it into a screen play. The screen play took on a life of its own with changing direction and rewrites. Catrin's life becomes complicated. This was a great story with romance, humor, drama, and a dog. Good characters.

There have been countless movies about WWII. Most of them focus on the men in uniform, out in combat. Less gets shown of the women behind the scenes. Lone Scherfig's "Their Finest" focuses on a woman writing scripts for short information films in the United Kingdom. One of the things that I noticed is that it takes place around the time of the Dunkirk evacuation, recently depicted in Christopher Nolan's movie. That seems to be a popular topic these days, as is Winston Churchill (he's gotten depicted in several productions over the past year).It's not a masterpiece, but it pulls no punches in showing the horror of the air raids on London by Nazi forces, and the characters are developed enough so that the viewer cares about them. Gemma Arterton turns in a fine performance in the lead role, with good support from the rest of the cast (including Bill Nighy and Eddie Marsan).* I recommend the movie.*Incidentally, right after watching this I watched "The Limehouse Golem", in which those two also starred.

It's 1940 and London is under heavy bombardment. Expecting to be a secretary, Catrin Cole (Gemma Arterton) is hired by Ministry of Information to give scripts a female touch. Her 'husband' is a struggling artist with a gimpy leg from the Spanish war. She is given the real story of twin sisters Lily and Rose stealing their father's boat to go to Dunkirk. Once there, she finds the truth is different from the news story. She decides to spin half-truths to her superiors to continue the project. Tom Buckley (Sam Claflin) is her impossible head writer and Ambrose Hilliard (Bill Nighy) is an acting diva. As they rush to finish the film, the story gets changed and a relationship develops.The actors are good. The story is touching but like the fictional movie inside the movie, some artificial manipulation starts to show. It has its poignant tear-jerker fun. The big acting moment from Gemma is a half and half proposition where it feels somewhat manufactured although it is very in keeping with the concept of the movie. Gemma is a solid lead dealing with all the emotions and issues. Bill Nighy is terrific as usual. Sam Claflin transitions well. It's all very good.

This reviewer "so" wanted to love this film. A light comedy about script writers writing and improvising on the fly while WWII crashes all around them, They are making a propaganda film and must keep the message positive despite what we all see. This experience mirrors the audience. The light or even sweet moments are fluff more than strikingly poignant, To be clear, our lead is adept at being sweetly (I said it again) stoic in the face of sexism, infidelity and in the midst of the blitz, but she hardly falters and seems almost unaffected. It may be the English way, bust as they said about Americans, we like our action, even in the script. Gemma Altertion is beautiful but is left to remind us about the woman' perspective in ways that make men seem incompetent. This could have been more of a light comedy to balance the war deaths, but the comedy is too lite, and the drama ineffective. The Germans were more on target then this film, full of potential, but eventually full of itself.