Film Review: "Finestkind" (2023).

From the writer and director of L.A. Confidential and 42 comes Finestkind. This crime thriller drama film written and directed by Brian Helgeland. The film tells the story of two brothers, raised in different worlds, who are reunited as adults over a fateful summer. Set against the backdrop of commercial fishing, the story takes on primal stakes when desperate circumstances force the brothers to strike a deal with a violent Boston crime gang. Along the way, a young woman finds herself caught perilously in the middle. Sacrifices must be made and bonds between brothers, friends, lovers, and a father and his son are put to the ultimate test.

In 2018, Jake Gyllenhaal, Ansel Elgort and Zendaya were attached to star in the film with Helgeland as writer and director. However, all dropped out after the project was stuck in development for several years. Helgeland first wrote the script in 1995 and Heath Ledger was originally attached at one point. By late April 2022, it was announced that Paramount+ had acquired the rights to the film. In addition, Ben Foster, Toby Wallace and Jenna Ortega replaced Gyllenhaal, Elgort and Zendaya, with Tommy Lee Jones, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Aaron Stanford, and Tim Daly rounding out the film's cast. At the same time, principal photography commenced and wrapped in early June. Filming took place in Boston, Fairhaven and New Bedford, Massachusetts. During filming, some of the crew have made claims of not getting paid, and injury while on set.

The cast's individual performances are excellent, quite predictably, though their characters are two-dimensional at best. Lesser characters are caricatures - the cast as morally-ambiguous are particularly ill-used - and the film as a whole is all over the place, tonally and narratively. It's as if no one's sure whether it's a comedy, farce or tragedy.

For all its good looks, the film is a let-down, hampered by the vanity of its star and by what, for audiences, at least, feels like a Krays-lite version of a very familiar story. The film really does waste the majority of its potential, Helgeland never tapping into the story of two brothers in a way that is essential or lasting. The cast's excellent performance is sadly not enough to pick up the work of Helgeland, who is better suited writing great stories behind cameras. Even though the efforts to make the brothers likeable and endearing characters are there, we can't really empathize with them and the film feels just like another glorification of violence for violence sake. Helgeland revels in the violence and depravity, setting a dubious tone that, in that final act, has as much of a struggle as Foster's character in going straight. How you start with an epic crime tale and Forster at his most Forster and end up with something this tepid might even be a more interesting story than the movie itself. Writer-director Brian Helgeland gives us violence without felt menace, doomed romance without felt desperation, and decadence without felt pleasure.

Simon says Finestkind receives:

Also, see my review for Legend.