THEIR FINEST: Lone Scherfig's subtle, loving appreciation of movies and Britain in wartime

How wonderful to see a British "period" movie done with such subtlety, affection and skill that it immediately bypasses anything "Masterpiece Theatery" and instead pulls you in via a raft of specific and highly believable characters and a tale that encompasses a rich, vast canvas that is also at every moment filled with intelligent detail. THEIR FINEST is also firmly feminist without ever having to shout about it. The movie's title itself makes that point, though it won't fully resonate until you've experienced this quiet and unusually graceful film.

As written by Gaby Chiappe (from the novel by Lissa Evans) and directed by Lone Scherfig (shown at right, of An Education and The Riot Club), this is a movie in which the creators are women. Yet the male characters are certainly as well-rounded as are the females, even if patriarchy is everywhere so present and powerful that it never notices its own sense of entitlement. Which is of course and forever the point. Yet Their Finest underscores all this without ever banging it home, and its very smart combination of World War II Britain and a loving-but-knowing appreciation of what movies can do and how they do it, renders the film a special experience.

The tale told is of a young woman, Catrin (played by the fine Gemma Arterton, above) -- married, we are initially told, to a striving but as yet unsuccessful artist (Jack Huston, below) -- who is given a job during Hitler's blitz of London writing the "sop" scenes (those devoted to women) for a new wartime propaganda movie.

In the process, Catrin comes into close contact with a raft of memorable characters -- from her co-writer (Sam Claflin, below, left)

to a nearly-has-been but still full-of-himself actor (the great Bill Nighy, below, in blue, who should get a supporting Oscar nod for this role) to the stern semi-overseer (Rachael Sterling, two photos below) whom the creative crew calls "the Ministry spy."

We also meet Nighy's agent (the marvelously versatile Eddie Marsan, creating yet another gem of a character), and his sister, played by the equally talented actress Helen McCrory. During the making of the wildly evolving movie-with-a-movie, we're also introduced to an American hero, suddenly turned actor, who must be added to the mix to make the movie marketable in the USA.

As played by Jake Lacy (below), delightfully dumb and so of-the-1940s, this fellow adds the broadest but still believable humor to the movie's mix. Everything evolves here -- characters, plot, themes -- until by the finale we're both moved by and marveling at what movies -- this one, and the movie within it -- can accomplish.

From STX Entertainment and running 117 minutes, Their Finest opened last week in limited release and this week hits venues all around the country. Here in South Florida, you can find it at a half dozen venues in the Miami, Boca Raton and Fort Lauderdale areas. Elsewhere? I am sure so, though the distributor's web site is no help whatsoever. But try clicking on your favorite movie-ticket site, entering your zip code, then see what happens....

DVDebut: Upper-class twats up to no good in Lone Scherfig's rich-are-rotten THE RIOT CLUB

An Education, Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself and Italian for Beginners were among the best movies of their respective years (2009, 2002 and 2000), and perhaps the most important thing they have in common is their director/sometimes writer, Lone Scherfig. If her latest endeavor, THE RIOT CLUB will not be included in this year's best lists, it is still a good enough example of a sub-genre not that often seen of late: the black comedy/ melodrama of class distinctions. It's British, of course. (They know the territory about as well as anyone).

Whether or not this tale of uber-nasty high-born Oxford students is based on "truth" -- a members-only society of wealthy, upper-class students who look down on the poor and middle-class, deriving ugly fun at their expense -- it's enough to know that it sure could be.

Further, the manner in which Ms Scherfig (pictured at right) and her writer, Laura Wade (who adapted the film from her own play) have brought these boys to life, their behavior seems all too believable and consistent.

By the time we've reached the shocking and ugly climax, over-the-top plays like par-for-the-course.

This is one of those films that will send the wealthy, entitled set into paroxysms of rage due to the fact that these people are shown to have so little understanding or empathy for anyone outside their closed circle. Oh, yes -- and they treat women no better than they handle those poor and/or bourgeois. There certainly are some decent rich (I've discovered a very few out of all those I've encountered over my 74 years), but if one looks, worldwide, across the vast divide that separates the wealthy from everyone else, the picture is not pretty. And due to the ever-growing disparity between rich and poor, this gap/attitude/divide worsens and becomes more difficult to correct with each passing year.

So the movie indeed wears its politics on its sleeve, but it entertains us even as it attempts to finger-point and educate. It is well-cast, -acted, and -directed, and while the writing is decent and the dialog generally believable, I do wish that Ms Wade has done a better job of it. What is needed here is something approaching what Oscar Wilde might have managed had he been inclined or able to tackle this particular subject, or what Alan Bennett did accomplish with his great play and film, The History Boys, another tale of British youth (a bit younger) on the rise.

Instead we get pretty much the expected, executed by a good-looking and talented cast of young men who manage -- via Wade, Scherfig and the actors' performances -- to differentiate well between these alternately bullying and cowardly sleazebags of tomorrow.  Normally, I'd name and comment on the performers, who are, to a man, just fine. But in this case I'll leave the IMDB to point out their names and only mention the leading elder actor, Tom Hollander, who once again gives a telling, subtle and comic performance as the representative of the older entitled generation.

The Riot Club, via IFC Films and running 107 minutes, arrived on DVD earlier this month & can be purchased or rented from the usual suspects.