Movie Reviews

‘FINCH’ Review – This Buddy Comedy Road Trip Movie is Equal Parts Heartwarming and Heartbreaking

By Michael Cook
November 3, 2021
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Synopsis

Tom Hanks is Finch, a man who embarks on a moving and powerful journey to find a new home for his unlikely family—his beloved dog and a newly created robot—in a dangerous and ravaged world.

We’ve all seen buddy comedies. And road trip movies. And post-apocalyptic movies that follow the last remnants of humanity as they try to survive against the odds. But what if you combined all three of these genres into one movie? Well, you’d get Finch. From director Miguel Sapochnik and writers Craig Luck and Ivor Powell, Finch is one of those sci-fi movies where world-building takes a backseat to character development. Led by dynamic performances from Tom Hanks and Caleb Landry Jones, gorgeous visuals, and a script that’s equal parts heartwarming and heartbreaking, Finch is an emotional, hilarious, and moving experience from beginning to end.

An Intimate Story Within an Apocalypse

Some time after a catastrophic solar event wipes out much of life as we know it, Finch (Tom Hanks), an ailing inventor, creates a robot named Jeff (Caleb Landry Jones) to accompany him and his dog on a cross-country road trip. Throughout the film, Jeff learns exactly what it means to be human. But perhaps Jeff has just as much to teach Finch as Finch has to teach Jeff. Finch takes a bunch of familiar ideas and morphs them into something new. It isn’t a big, bombastic movie about a world-ending catastrophe and the humans trying to save the day. Instead, it’s an intimate, introspective story about a man, a dog, and a robot. It’s a story that prioritizes quiet, character-focused moments over huge action sequences or big exposition dumps. Not to say Finch is without either – just that they revolve around the characters’ journeys.

The epic scale is balanced perfectly with the smaller stakes of Finch and Jeff’s cross-country quest. Both in terms of its visuals, which range from up-close character moments to gorgeous, sweeping shots of desolated landscapes. And of the story itself, which briefly touches on the world at large while mainly focusing on how Finch and Jeff learn and grow together. Finch isn’t gonna wow you with its surprising plot twists. Much of the film’s latter half is fairly predictable based on the film’s setup. But it’s effective, nonetheless. The comedy-heavy first half eases you into the more emotional second half, leaving you primed and ready for the movie’s deeply satisfying, though surprisingly emotional conclusion. It’s a quiet, introspective movie, to be sure. But it’s also the kind of movie that leaves you thinking about it long after the credits roll.

Caleb Landry Jones (as Jeff the robot) and Tom Hanks. (Photo: Apple TV+.)

Characters

In large part, Finch‘s success comes from how well-realized its characters are. Sure, both Finch and Jeff slot into fairly worn tropes. I mean, the idea of the Creator interacting with (and learning from) the Created predates even the most famous example of the trope, Frankenstein. But what makes Finch and Jeff stand out are Hanks and Jones’s performances. Hanks brings an authentic, lived-in sense of world-weariness to Finch. You can tell just how beaten down he is from the moment he appears onscreen. But Hanks’s trademark charm and personality still shine through, imbuing Finch with this spark of energy. For as melancholic as Hanks’s performance can be, there are still glimmers of hope that seep through. In this post-apocalyptic world of robots and terrible UV radiation, Hanks’s Finch feels as authentic as any human living today.

And as for Jeff, you’d be forgiven for wondering why the movie’s not named after him. Because Jeff steals almost every scene he’s in. There’s something so compelling about watching this giant, bumbling robot – effectively a child in emotional development – stumble his way through life. And there’s a sweetness in the way Jeff approaches the world, bordering on naivete at times. Jones’s vocal performance is wonderful, equal parts childlike wonder and existential crisis. The fact that he’s able to deliver such emotion through a performance that’s clearly been digitally augmented to sound more robotic is beyond impressive. Equally impressive is the absolutely gorgeous VFX work, a combination of what I’m assuming to be practical animatronics/puppetry and CGI animation. Much of the humor comes from Jeff’s physicality, in a very slapstick kind of way. And the VFX work brings this to life perfectly.

Tom Hanks and Caleb Landry Jones (as Jeff the robot). (Photo: Apple TV+.)

The Heart of the Film

The relationship between Finch and Jeff forms the emotional core of the movie. The drama comes from their hesitance with each other, and with the world around them. For Finch, a lifetime of trauma – and a world-ending catastrophe – has left him reluctant to open up to anyone, human or robot. And Jeff is at the beginning of his life, his worldview still new and unformed. Like a child, he questions everything he sees and learns. He’s quick to call out any and all hypocrisies he sees in Finch’s teachings. And the simplicity of Jeff’s worldview, the almost black-and-white way he approaches things, brings out some of Finch’s long-dormant soft side. It’s an immediately believable relationship, and one that’s easy to get invested in.

If I had one complaint, though, it’s that the relationship isn’t always developed consistently. Perhaps this is intentional, though, as human interactions are rarely consistent in a linear way. We interact warmly with another one moment, and coldly the next. Perhaps if the movie were slightly shorter – or if some key information that gets revealed late in the second act wasn’t telegraphed so clearly long before its reveal – then this wouldn’t be quite as noticeable. But instead, the middle of the movie feels a bit stagnant. Like the characters are beating around the bush to get to the emotional endpoint we all know they’re going to get to. But honestly, given how well the movie’s (genuinely heartbreaking) conclusion works, this ends up being a fairly minor problem.

Final Thoughts

To say I adored Finch would be an understatement. It’s a gorgeously shot movie, managing to be the rare post-apocalyptic movie that doesn’t just feel muddy and washed out. The performances from Hanks and Jones are beyond captivating, with the pair creating an immediately believable relationship that you are quick to root for. And I dare anybody to walk away from this movie saying they don’t love Jeff. When I say I’d take a bullet for this robot without a second’s thought, I’m not kidding.

At times, the movie does feel a little slow. Deliberately so, I’d imagine, but slow nonetheless. However, it’s in these slower moments that the film shines brightest. And for as funny as the first half of the movie is, the second half left me a bit of a wreck. Finch is a story that’s less about the destination and more about the journey. A true road trip movie, through and through. But one that’s executed brilliantly.