Finch – Film Review

In Finch, a man, a robot and a dog form an unlikely family in a powerful and moving adventure of one man’s quest to ensure that his beloved canine companion will be cared for after he’s gone. Tom Hanks stars as Finch, a robotics engineer and one of the few survivors of a cataclysmic solar event that has left the world a wasteland. But Finch, who has been living in an underground bunker for a decade, has built a world of his own that he shares with his dog, Goodyear.

He creates a robot, played by Caleb Landry Jones, to watch over Goodyear when he no longer can. As the trio embarks on a perilous journey into a desolate American West, Finch strives to show his creation, who names himself Jeff, the joy and wonder of what it means to be alive. Their road trip is paved with both challenges and humor, as it’s as difficult for Finch to goad Jeff and Goodyear to get along as it is for him to manage the dangers of the new world.

It honestly feels like quite a long time since a movie like Finch has come along, for better and for worse. Films that are set in a post-apocalyptic world but take an extremely simplistic approach can both be a breath of fresh air, or sometimes, a little bit frustrating.

On one hand, it’s kind of nice and refreshing to see a film take a simplistic approach in this sort of genre, showcasing the more intricate things that people surviving an apocalypse go through on a day-to-day basis. However, on the other, it can be a bit frustrating because you can’t help but wonder what a full-blown, crazy apocalyptic movie would be like in the same story. What it would’ve been like if it had a bit more fuel in its engine.

Finch takes the first approach, and for the most part, it works relatively well although it’s not the type of movie that you’ll be talking about years down the road. As a matter of fact, most of you that end up watching this film will more than likely forget about it relatively quickly.

But that doesn’t always mean that a film was bad. I’ve seen a lot of films that I enjoyed watching but don’t find myself thinking about often. Finch isn’t a huge standout in this genre, but it is a solidly entertaining flick and one that may even tug on the heart-strings by the time the third act rolls around.

Sadly, it takes a while for this movie to get going. The first “big” scene doesn’t happen until about thirty-five to forty minutes in the film and sometimes it can be a bit hazy as to where the story is going. For a large portion of the film, I kept thinking that some huge wrench was going to be thrown into the plot, causing it to go in a completely different direction, but that never happened.

As mentioned earlier, Finch takes the more intricate approach, showcasing what Hanks’ character does on a daily basis with his adorable pet dog Goodyear. But he understands that, because of his older age and because of the harsh living conditions, he isn’t going to live for too long.

This is when Finch sets out to build a super smart humanoid robot named Jeff, who he designs to take care of Goodyear when he ultimately passes away. As one would probably expect, Finch is packed full of tender moments between all three living things, and it can be genuinely beautiful to watch them all traverse the world together, trying to make the best of their days.

There were a handful of moments in the third act that impacted me quite greatly, which is something I certainly didn’t expect to happen after watching the first act. Of course, Hanks is absolutely marvelous in this role. Who doesn’t want to watch a movie where Hanks befriends a dog and an adorable, inquisitive robot? Exactly.

But, as mentioned earlier, Finch isn’t a game-changer by any means. It suffers from a severe lack of story (seriously, if they wanted to, the screenwriters honestly could’ve told this exact same story in a few minutes instead of stretching it super thin into two full hours), but the beauty of the movie really comes from seeing how Hanks and company learn to bond with one another in such terrible circumstances. If you’re curious about this one, throw it on and see what you think.