Finch: Tom Hanks, a dog and some robots in a post-apocalyptic road movie with heart

By Karen Gordon

Rating: B-plus

It sounds like the beginning of a joke: Tom Hanks, two robots and a dog hit the road in post-Apocalypse America.  

But, anchored by a solid performance by Tom Hanks, Finch,  is a  small-scale drama, that is ultimately — and please forgive me for being cliché  — about the beauty of being alive.  I mean that in the best way possible. 

Tom Hanks and his merry post-apocalyptic band hit the road in Finch

Hanks plays Finch, a robotics engineer based in St. Louis, who has been living in a bunker with his dog Goodyear, played by Seamus (hey, we’re dog people at Original-Cin) after an environmental apocalypse caused by a solar event that’s burned holes in the ozone layer.  From what we can tell, he’s one of a very few people left alive.  

Finch is building an advanced bipedal android, with the ability to communicate and make decisions.  He’s building it to take care of Goodyear if he dies. As we see early on, Finch is not completely well. 

Storms are a frequent issue on the surface, but while he’s getting the new android up and running, it gets worse. A superstorm is forming up and is bearing down on them. Time to go. 

Finch loads all of them into his RV, and they head west to San Francisco, to outrun the storm.   He’ll have to figure out his android and teach it how to help the carbon-based members of their little gang survive, en route.

PROUDLY SUPPORTS ORIGINAL-CIN

The android, who chooses the name Jeff (played by Caleb Landry Jones in a motion capture suit), surprises Finch with a very distinct personality.  Jeff is dutiful, but is also like a young teenager, wanting to achieve, and to please Finch, with his initiative. But Jeff has quirks, that make him a loose cannon. 

A lot of the success of the film rests on the shoulders of Tom Hanks, who is in almost every scene.  

In many ways, the film shows Hanks at his best. Hanks, is a superstar, but not a showboat. You never feel that he’s taken on a role because there’s a scene where he can give a big showy Oscar winning performance.  There’s subtlety to his work. 

One of his strengths as an actor is that he always gives you the impression that his characters are really listening to what’s going on, and absorbing things before the next line out of his mouth.  That’s particularly key here, because he’s the only human being, so it’s how we get a sense of his character’s inner life. And we get a sense of the things he’s wrestling with in a way that a lot of dialogue might not quite capture.

And in a film this spare, all the relationships and interactions contribute to building the story here.  He gives as much to the relationship with Goodyear as he does to Jeff, to the advantage of the film. It’s a thoughtful, grounded and generous performance.

The other key player here is Jones, as Jeff, who is also very good in a role that could, tip into cartoonish-ness.  He captures Jeff’s odd mix of personality traits, and works well with Hanks. 

There isn’t much that’s particularly new in Finch. The elements of the story, like a man alone with his dog post apocalypse are reminiscent of I Am Legend, and Jeff, although physically different has similarities  to Wall-E.   

You could even compare it to Hanks’s movie Castaway  and his relationship with Wilson.  The visions of a decaying America are also familiar from a myriad of movies and apocalyptic TV series.   

But, as the film goes on, those things are not such liabilities. Writers Craig Luck and Ivor Powell, have written an intelligent script that’s focused on the relationships and more existential issues with a few deeper and perhaps more current themes woven in.  Director Miguel Sapochnik has been thoughtful with his choices, creating a movie that is well paced, cinematic and atmospheric.  

Finch was originally intended for theatrical release, but became a casualty of COVID.  Those cinematic production values, add heft and visual interest to the movie. He also has done his level best to keep the film from drifting into cuteness or sentimentality, focusing instead on the jeopardy that Finch is in, his underlying anxiety and the things from Finch’s life past and present that are on his mind. 

It adds up to a movie with real heart, that is surprisingly touching.

Finch, directed by Miguel Spochnik, starring Tom Hanks, Caleb Landry Jones, and Seamus

Premieres on Apple TV+ , Friday, November 5th.