FINCH – Review

So, during the “lockdown” phase of the pandemic, last year did you feel alone and isolated? Well, at least we had the various online meeting/chat platforms which are more than what’s available to the movies’ new “lonely man”. In the 60s and 70s, Charlton Heston may have earned that title (OMEGA MAN comes to mind), but for the last couple of decades, that’s the movie moniker for multi-Oscar-winner Tom Hanks. I mean he was by himself most of the time he was on the “trail’ in last year’s NEWS OF THE WORLD (until he got a fellow traveler who didn’t speak English). Twenty years prior (no, it can’t be that long ago), Hanks went full “Crusoe” in CAST AWAY. He’s in a similar situation in this new film, but he’s not painting a face on a volleyball. No, he’s gonna build himself a companion. That’s the goal (aside from staying alive) of an inventor named FINCH.

Actually, Finch (Hanks) is the only person on screen as the story begins to unfold. Due to a cataclysm spurred by a solar flare, the planet is almost uninhabitable. And most of the population has “bit the dust” (oh, there’s a whole lotta’ that blowing about). So Finch, covered from head to toe in a hazmat/space suit, goes shopping with his robot/shopping cart “Duey”. After they’ve picked a shop clean, Finch sprays a big red “no” symbol on the front, and then the two drive off in his big “Winnebago”-style vehicle. They pull into the empty research facility (“home”) before a big sandstorm engulfs them. Inside Finch is greeted by his pooch “Goodyear”, feeds him his “prize”, a can of primo dog food, takes his meds (Finch isn’t “out of the clear”), then works on his new project: a near lifesize (really close to seven feet tall), talking, bipedal robot. Ah, but the downloading of information into his operation system will have to cease as a massive “superstorm” (tornados, gale-force winds, lightning, etc.) is bearing down on them. Finch figures that their best chance at survival is leaving St. Louis and heading west to San Francisco. Along the way, the robot seems to develop a personality and even insists on a name: “Jeff”. Can this unlikely quartet make the long journey (Finch travels during the day to avoid the feral human “scavengers’ lurking about) and cross over that gorgeous Golden Gate Bridge?

And yes, it’s basically a “one-man-show”, but oh what a guy at its core. Although his character is a true certified genius to construct two working “mechanicals” (with one acting fairly sentient) Hanks is still the affable “everyman”, though his “sunny” attitude is truly put to the test in those post-apocalyptic “hellscape”. He’s not Mad Max, but he’s often “ticked-off” Tom when Jeff embraces “initiative”. But he’s trying to be optimistic, which is buoyed by his devotion to “Goodyear”. the scruffy pooch that seems to represent to Finch all that was wonderful of the world that was. Hanks keeps him on a fairly even keel, as when he becomes a “surrogate father” to his creation (perhaps a touch of Victor Frankenstein), until his survival mode “kicks in”. The pure panic in his face as headlights hover not far in the distance is truly palpable, Though surrounded by doom and death, he will not give in. In that way his ramshackle “tin men’ and Goodyear are his last bonds with humanity and decency (especially when he relates his failure that led to his meeting the pup). While many actors would be settling into comfy family-type roles, Hanks continues to stretch himself becoming a compelling if unlikely “wasteland warrior”. Oh, and some credit should go to the actor who provided the moves (via “mo-cap”) and voice for Jeff, Caleb Landry Jones. Though Jeff’s head resembles a big bronze pill with split black googles, we always know what’s in that “hard drive” (the sight of Jeff bouncing in place with excitement is quite endearing).

Though the whole “people after people” is almost as much a film staple as the wild west town or a spooky castle, director Miguel Sapochnik, who’s been busy on several acclaimed TV shows, makes the empty streets sad and very dangerous. He expertly controls the pacing, allowing us to drink in the quiet moments ( a device “mutilates” books so they can be scanned and transferred to Jeff), right before he shocks us with scenes of sweaty terror (racing to an underpass that shears off the RV’s “solar umbrella”). The script from Craig Luck and Ivor Powell, reveals its secrets in tiny chunks, keeping an air of mystery as we piece together the downfall of our Mother Earth, though it doesn’t hammer home its climate “message”.Even with most of the humans gone, there’s plenty of humanity in the tale of this fellow’s “can do” spirit. If you’re going to spend a couple of hours roaming the desolate sands, you’d be hard-pressed to find better company than Goodyear, Duey, Jeff, and Mr. Hanks as FINCH.

3.5 Out of 4

FINCH begins streaming exclusively on Apple TV+ on Friday, November 5, 2021