Finding You is the type of film you put on on a rainy Sunday afternoon. The type of romantic comedy of which there are plenty and doesn’t reinvent the genre. It’s a film that knows its target audience and that’s where it’ll find most of its praise.
Finley (Katherine McNamara – ‘The Stand‘), a talented aspiring violinist, meets Beckett (Jedidiah Goodacre – ‘Chilling Adventures of Sabrina‘), a famous young movie star, on the way to her college semester abroad program in a small coastal village in Ireland. Even though she finds him arrogant, you can already predict where the plot is going. Rising star Beckett takes the uptight Finley on an unexpected path in life, while she tries to make him stand up against those managing him. Stardom comes at a price. Will their romance bloom or fade before it even had the chance to fully shine?
Even though the two leads have no romantic chemistry at all, they do a pretty good job at acting their way through it. What helps is their separate storylines in which they’re able to do a bit more of character development and show the viewer they’re more than just “the two lovebirds”. Especially McNamara shows promise, as she gets to share quite a few scenes with Vanessa Redgrave (‘Mrs Lowry & Son‘), who’s already proven herself in the past decades to be a skilled actor.
Brian Baugh, who wrote and directed the film, uses the story’s locations as a character of its own. This helps with establishing the tone and feel of the film, while embracing the culture of the country. One thing that really could’ve helped in making Finding You a bit easier to sit through is the pacing and runtime. Baugh takes too much time to sit with one scene before moving on to the next. The entire thing could’ve been tighter, so the final 30 minutes don’t feel as stretched out as they are.
Finding You is a charming and innocent romance that’ll please fans of the genre with its predictability and likeable characters.
Review – Finding You
Reviewed online (screener provided by Rialto Distribution), May 11, 2021. Rating: TBC. Running time: 115 min.
PRODUCTION: (AU) A Rialto Distribution release of a Nook Lane Entertainment, MK1 Productions, Red Sky Studios production. Producers: Brian Baugh, Ken Carpenter (p.g.a.), Stephen Preston, Julie Ryan (p.g.a.). Executive producers: Julian Reid, A. Michael Roman.
CREW: Director/writer: Brian Baugh. Cinematography: Michael Lavelle. Editing: Chris Witt. Music: Kieran Kiely, Tim Williams.
CAST: Katherine McNamara, Jedidiah Goodacre, Vanessa Redgrave, Tom Everett Scott, Judith Hoag, Saoirse-Monica Jackson, Patrick Bergin, Rose Reid, Fiona Bell, Natalie Britton.
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