BY CHRISTOPHER STAMM
GUEST MOVIE REVIEWER

Finch (now streaming on Apple)
Rated PG-13 – for language and adult themes.

I had planned on reviewing Eternals for you all this week, but let’s be honest: It’s the new Marvel film, and regardless of what I say, you will go see it or you will not, based on just that. On top of that, my mother always said, “If you have nothing nice to say, say nothing,” and that should tell you all you need to know.

That being said, I decided to tell you about a small film, released by Apple streaming this weekend, called Finch, starring Tom Hanks as the title character.

Finch is a contemplative film about one man’s desire and need to ensure his beloved dog, Goodyear, is taken care of after he passes away.

That’s usually a fairly easy task, but in this case, Finch takes place 15 years after a massive solar flare has destroyed the earth, killing pretty much everyone on the planet.

Finch spends his days collecting food and materials with his robot, Dewey, and taking them back to his bunker, where he is busy building another robot that he decides he will name Jeff, voiced perfectly by Caleb Landry Jones (X-Men franchise).

Shortly after Finch activates Jeff, a massive storm (that will last 40 days) begins to form up over his bunker, and Finch, Dewey, Jeff, and Goodyear the dog have to abandon their refuge and hit the road in search of a safe home.
Finch is a slower film – action is almost non-existent – and it focuses entirely on the characters. Hanks does his usual amazing job carrying this film, and it works.

At times heartbreaking, and at other times funny, this is a film that hits all the notes and hits them well.

I give Finch four out of five stars because of the performance of Hanks and the strong story and the cinematography from Jo Willems – stunning and elegiac, finding beauty in ravaged landscapes, and making one brief moment of respite seem almost miraculous.