‘Finally Dawn’ Review – A Promising Premise That Can’t Follow Through

When I was an undergrad, I got to be an extra for a film that was shot on campus at my university. I didn’t know they were going to shoot where I was, but I happened to be there and was able to be a part of the movie without much effort. This experience is something that people dream of, and I got to do it simply because I stuck around for halftime of a football game. Rebecca Antonaci’s Mimosa finds herself in a similar situation in Saverio Costanzo’s Finally Dawn after her sister is brought in for an audition as an extra in an American film production being shot just outside Rome. She catches the eye of the female lead, Josephine Esperanto (Lily James), and she soon gets whisked away for the evening with her, her driver Rufus (Willem Dafoe), and her male co-star Sean Lockwood (Joe Keery). 

On its surface, Finally Dawn has an intriguing premise. An unsuspecting young woman gets noticed and immediately thrown into the fire with all that fame has to offer? Sign me up. Unfortunately, the film fumbles any promise its ideas had at nearly every turn. The performances are particularly lacking, especially from James and Keery. It’s as if they were told they were going to be in a completely different movie than the rest of the cast, with nothing tonally matching what everyone else is doing. Dafoe is good but sparingly used, and Antonaci is solid but isn’t given much to do.

Mimosa only speaks Italian, so when she’s taken under the wings of Americans Josephine and Sean, she needs a translator. It doesn’t help that Josephine introduces her to a plethora of strangers as a Swedish poet, furthering the language barrier between her and everyone else. This turns Mimosa into one of the most sidelined protagonists in recent memory. She’s certainly meant to be the audience surrogate, but she only has the chance to watch as other people say and do things rather than being involved in them herself. She gets more involved in the action in the latter third of the film, but most of the time, she’s just hanging around with nothing to do. 

The saving grace of this film is how good it looks. The colors and lighting are sharp, and the production design immediately pops off the screen. There are a couple of scenes on the set of the film, and the recreation of an old-fashioned production lot is astounding. Particularly, the scene where they are shooting one of the final moments of the film stands out, cutting from full screen to widescreen to indicate it’s part of the film within the film, and the cameras are rolling. The set is crafted to resemble ancient Egypt, with costumes and hairstyles in stereotypical fashion. It’s made clear that this production isn’t exactly shooting for Best Picture. 

Costanzo’s script is meandering, not paying attention to any one character long enough for us to care about them. We learn almost nothing about the actors Mimosa meets, with their only real motivation seemingly being mischievous and trying to one-up or harm one another in public. Each moment feels tedious, not building to anything further than getting to the next scene. The movie could benefit from trimming a couple of scenes down and honing in on stronger character moments. 

Finally Dawn is a massive disappointment that squanders a great cast and strong premise with a slow developing plot and mediocre characters. The opening 20 minutes or so showed a lot of promise and intrigue, but the rest of the movie doesn’t take advantage of that initial jolt from the outset.

Finally Dawn is currently playing in select theaters and is available on Digital platforms.