by Shane Conto, Staff Writer
Who loves a good travel video? I consider myself a bit of a Hobbit who does not stray too far from his Hobbit hole, but I dream of taking a risk someday. Taking that big step by going on a trip to somewhere international. See the world! Those travel videos have sparked that side of me and made me want to see beautiful places all over the world. But why should you limit yourself to just travel videos? Movies have pulled double duty for years by not only telling great stories but also selling the beautiful places they take place. Walkabout and plenty of other films have captured the breathtaking glory of the Outback. The Lord of the Rings is the greatest marketing that New Zealand could ever ask for. Then you have this new romance called Finding You. Not only does the protagonist take a trip to Ireland to get away… she takes the audience with her!
But Finding You isn’t just a two-hour travel video for the beautiful landscapes of Ireland, right?
Trust me, there is a lot more going on in this film than just a bunch of eye-catching landscape shots. Not to say that Michael Lavelle’s inspired photography of the lush greens of the countryside don’t grab your attention. They do. But what does writer-director Brian Baugh bring to the table with the rest of the film? Before we stray too far away from the visuals, the general photography is bright with all of the sheen of a nicely processed film (but not in the best way). This looks artificial at times and that reinforces some of the straight cheese that the narrative delivers, too. This narrative mostly centers on a budding relationship between a young musician who begins to fall for a charming but seemingly rebellious actor from “big budget” dragons movies (unfortunately this actual film has a modest budget, so when they show the dragons that inhabit the film within a film, they look straight out of a PlayStation game… as in the first PlayStation). But at least we can say that Baugh keeps the story moving over its two-hour runtime.
I think it might be time though to focus more on this narrative I have been only touching upon up to this point, right?
Yes, the centerpiece of this film is the budding love affair between Finley (Rose Reid), who is taking a trip to get away and work on her musicianship and Beckett (Jedidiah Goodacre),the actor in big budget movies who hates his own existence. Finley has the motivation to take this trip because we start the film with her failing an audience for music school due to her technically perfect but hollow performance. But she also wants to make the trip because her brother once made the same one (before his death). She stays with the same family who now owns a bed & breakfast so queue all of the hijinx you can think of that will act as the comic relief. The mother provides Finely with her brother’s journal which sends her on a search for a cross drawn inside dedicated to her. She connects with Beckett there who has an artificial tabloid life that is controlled by his father/agent, but all Beckett wants is a regular life. Then Findley gets involved in a volunteer situation with an old woman (Vanessa Redgrave), who has a whole past that Finley tries to resolve. Then Finley connects with a drunken fiddler who helps her find the heart of her music. I’ll stop there because there are even more subplots and I think I have illustrated the point that Baugh wrote way too much into this film. There are threads that will disappear for literally an hour, which really makes it hard to invest in all of them.
But with so much going on, how do we connect with the characters?
At the start, Finley and Beckett come off a little stiff and clichéd, but as the film goes on, they feel looser. Reid and Goodacre feel like they get more comfortable in their characters and with each other as the film goes on. They have solid chemistry, which gives the film enough charm to overcome its many tropes and pretty cheesy dialogue. The family that runs the bed & breakfast are charming and fun even if the daughter, played by Saoirse-Monica Jackson is a bit too much at times. The parents are good additions, especially Fiona Bell who is tough and loving in the role of Mrs. Callaghan. Katherine McNamara does not do much as Beckett’s onscreen love except for giving killer stares at Findley… but I guess she does it well. Tom Everett Scott is slimy and manipulative as Beckett’s dad. But the two most interesting and layered supporting cast are Redgrave’s Mrs. Sweeney and Patrick Bergin’s Seamus (the drunken fiddler). Redgrave gets to be sassy and emotional all in this performance including some impressive moments of vulnerability. This one definitely shows she still has it. Seamus is a charming man with plenty of heart. He plays the fiddle with all of the talent you would expect of a character like his in a film like this. He has some really sweet moments with Finley and is arguably the heart right at the center.
With plenty of story, charm, cheesiness, and clichés, is Finding You worth your time?
With almost 120 minutes of film here, there is definitely enough here to make this enjoyable. Will you be surprised what you see? Absolutely not. This is a film that leans into all of the romance tropes and cliches you can think of. But does that make it a bad film? No. Luckily, we get enough charm from the cast to make the audience connect. The film also comes off quite cheesy in look and story throughout. But is it too much? No… this film builds enough emotion to balance it out. Is this a great film? Is it a good film? Finding You delivers a fine little film that you can enjoy enough.
Grade: C+