Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Brian Helgeland
Starring: Ben Foster, Toby Wallace, Jenna Ortega, Tommy Lee Jones, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Lolita Davidovich, Tim Daly, Clayne Crawford
I was first exposed to the New England expression "finest kind" through the
character of Hawkeye on long-running sitcom MASH. Hawkeye used it quite literally to express his respect for something or
someone. In writer/director Brian Helgeland's Finestkind, we're told the expression can have different meanings depending on when
and to whom it's used. This vagueness reflects the film that bears its name,
which is a mish mash of a sea-faring adventure, a family drama, a romance
and a crime thriller. Some of the elements work better than others, but they
never coalesce into any truly satisfying.
Toby Wallace, the young Australian actor who caught our attention
with his charismatic turn in
Babyteeth, begins his campaign to become Hollywood's next big import from Down Under
in convincing fashion as college graduate Charlie. The film opens with
Charlie reuniting with his significantly older brother Tom (Ben Foster), the captain of a rough and tumble crew of fishermen. Charlie wants to
join the crew for the summer and get to know Tom before he heads to law
school in the autumn. Tom gives his younger sibling the standard warning
that the sea is no place for a book learnin' kid with soft hands, but he
agrees to let the boy tag along.
This results in the film's most engaging scenes as we watch Charlie build
up trust with the salty sea-dogs of his brother's crew. Anyone who worked a
manual labour summer job as a teen will be familiar with the playful
piss-taking of the wet behind the ears new kid. The relationship forged
between Charlie and the men his brother puts his trust in every day is
genuinely endearing. There's always something interesting about a movie that
throws us into a distinct world, and while I can't vouch for the veracity of
Finestkind's depiction of trawling off the New England coast, Helgeland and his cast
certainly make it look authentic.
While Tom and Charlie share the same mother (Lolita Davidovitch),
they have very different dads. Tom is the product of Ray (Tommy Lee Jones), a Texan fisherman who could probably salt his chips by scratching his
beard. The two don't speak much but when Tom's trawler sinks his old man
offers him aid in the form of taking his own boat, the "Finestkind", out on
an oyster shucking expedition. Conversely, Charlie's father (Tim Daly) is a white collar type who grows concerned that his son is taking too
much of a liking to the seafaring life.
There's a better version of Finestkind that leans into the
idea of sons trying to live up to their fathers' expectations while figuring
out if working class roots can really be erased by living in a big house.
That movie is called
Creed, and it's hard not to think of the relationship between the aged Rocky
Balboa and the young Adonis Creed as we watch Tom take Charlie under his
wing. But while it may not have the depth of that modern classic, it's still
quite heart-warming, thanks to the endearing performances of Foster and
Wallace.
Helgeland isn't content with centering his film on exploring such masculine
dynamics however. He adds an unconvincing romance between Charlie and Mabel
(Jenna Ortega), a young drug-dealing Latina who constantly talks
about how she doesn't want to be a cliché while being burdened with the most
clichéd persona imaginable. When Charlie sees her troubled home life Mabel
assures him "This is where I'm from, not where I'm going," and the audience
collectively groans. Later a character spouts the Hallmark card nugget of
"You live and you die, it's what you do in between that counts."
In the movie's final act it takes an even more unconvincing turn into
thriller territory as circumstances force Charlie and Tom to go to work for
a Boston crime syndicate. Clayne Crawford, who was so good as the
embodiment of male fragility in
The Killing of Two Lovers
and
The Integrity of Joseph Chambers, is given the less rewarding role here of a stereotypical Irish-American
mobster, the sort who turns every "o" into an "aaahhh." He's very watchable
but he's in the wrong movie, and the resulting thriller subplot is lazy and
hackneyed.
If you want to see an affable drama about brotherly bonding on the high
seas, you're covered by about half of Finestkind's runtime. But be prepared to slog through a crime thriller that's no more
engaging than any of the many straight to VOD efforts that can be found
lurking in the depths of a streaming service.
Finestkind is on Paramount+ from
December 15th.
