Finestkind (2023) Review!!

Synopsis – A crew of fishermen tread dangerous waters when their debts start piling up.

My Take – At first glance, considering the fact that co-creator of the Paramount Network television series Yellowstone, Taylor Sheridan (Hell or High Water, Sicario) was attached as a producer to this latest Brian Helgeland (Legend, A Knight’s Tale) directorial, who is known popularly as the Oscar-winning screenwriter of L.A. Confidential (1997), one could expect a solid crime drama with family elements albeit on a rarely used setting, commercial fishing boats.

Originally written in the early 1990s, the long-gestating passion project once had writer-director Helgeland’s muse the late Heath Ledger attached, with Ledger planning to age into the role of the older brother. But production delays, that included lost equipment and injuries, eventually led to further casting changes, and now over 30 years after writing the initial draft, the film finally arrived on Paramount+ six days ago.

Unfortunately, despite offering occasional moments of intrigue, the film ultimately stumbles and falls short of delivering any thrill. Along with its protracted 126-minute runtime, the film is constantly juggling too many concepts, resulting in tonal disarray that falls short in capturing the emotional depth that’s intended. It never has any idea what it wants to be.

It tries to be a heist flick, a character drama, a romance and a thriller. Add to that it takes more than half of the film to introduce the conflict, to what this film is actually about.

There is such an intense lack of affective continuity, and a persistently breakneck rearrangement of its tone, that it becomes impossible to take seriously in even its depiction of the most mundane human interactions. To make matters worse, it wastes a talented cast that includes the likes of Tommy Lee Jones, Ben Foster and Jenna Ortega.

Set in the rugged backdrop of a small fishing town in Maine, the story follows Charlie (Toby Wallace), a recent college graduate, who in an effort to reconnect with his estranged half-brother Tom (Ben Foster) joins him on his fishing boat for the summer, before heading off to law school. Initially a fish out of water, Charlie soon finds camaraderie with the crew which consists of Costa (Ismael Cruz Cordova), Skeemo (Aaron Stanford) and Nunes (Scotty Tovar).

However, trouble arises when Tom takes the risk of dredging for scallops illegally in Canadian waters on the fishing vessel, nicknamed Finestkind, owned by Ray (Tommy Lee Jones), Tom’s father. Caught for their action, the boat gets impounded and slapped with a hefty US$100,000 fine. As none of them has that kind of money, Charlie ends up hatching a plan with local deal broker and new love interest Mabel (Jenna Ortega) to solve all of their problems.

The film unfolds through an emerging romance, a somewhat sluggish family-based drama that dominates the initial 60 minutes, and then sudden shifts into a crime thriller for the last act.

Yes, the film’s crime element holds a stronger grip, but the storytelling is a jumbled mess. This is one of those strange films where you know that something wrong happened in the process of telling a story that is inside the film’s director, and then translate that to a script and then further making that film into an actual film.

That’s not to say it’s a bad project on any level beyond its base construct, but rather that there is a clear crisis of identity and intention at work. The opening act hints at the problems of the rest of the film is going to have considering the low stakes, boring character introductions and an atrocious editing that makes you think the director itself doesn’t like what he has filmed.

Without proper characters to follow, the film sets into a rhythm where we just wonder with the main character through some situations that don’t really feel justified, only to gives us a proper inciting incident near the end of the film.

This is rather unexpected considering director Brian Helgeland’s previous work includes two masterful screenplays, L.A. Confidential (1997) and Mystic River (2003). That said, there are some redeemable moments.

The film’s standout quality is its depiction of the deep brotherhood between Charlie and Tom. Witnessing their bond being rebuilt is a delight and offers some of the film’s most genuine and heartfelt instances. But unfortunately, despite such instances, it never truly anchors its concepts and introduces new notions or undergoes drastic shifts in tone that hinder the audience’s investment in the characters and the plot.

Performances wise, Toby Wallace struggles throughout and is not convincing as the lead. Tommy Lee Jones makes the most of his part and so does Ben Foster, who is great as always. Their father and son story was the only thing good buried in the mess. Jenna Ortega tried hard to make her cliché character work.

Clayne Crawford’s portrayal is the most compelling of the lot. However, despite his commendable performance, the character is constrained by a messy narrative and limited screen time. In supporting roles, Ismael Cruz Cordova, Scotty Tovar and Aaron Stanford are decent. On the whole, ‘Finestkind’ is a formulaic thriller stuck between muddled themes and tones.