Tom Hanks is unquestionably one of Hollywood’s most reliable stars. While not every movie he makes is a winner in its entirety, the star is always guaranteed to deliver a memorable and charming performance. This in mind, it is wholly unsurprising that Hanks is getting high marks for his latest film, Miguel Sapochnik’s Finch, which is arriving on Apple TV+ this Friday and just saw first reviews arrive online.
Batting for the home team, our own Mike Reyes reviewed Finch for CinemaBlend, and his three-and-a-half star review gives effusive praise to Tom Hanks’ turn while also complementing the story about an inventor at the end of the world who builds a robot companion to take care of his dog after he is gone. He writes,
Hanks’ Finch is lovable and bound to be a character that folks peg as a “true Hanks role.” As he gets to really dig into the perils and pitfalls in the life of Finch Weinberg, the actor is allowed to do stuff we rarely see.
Many of these same sentiments can be found in Tomris Laffly’s Finch review for Variety. The complements the film for being “big-hearted, comfortingly traditional and bolstered by a genuine love of dogs,” and adds that it is actually the canine’s perspective that adds a special layer:
In its finest moments, the film even mimics the spirit of our canine companions in some respects, leaning closely into simple yet virtuous notions like hope, trust and loyalty the way pooches inherently do, demanding a big-screen treatment with the assortment of emotions it summons…
Giving Finch two-and-a-half stars out of a possible four, AP’s Lindsey Bahr says that some elements on the film are familiar and perhaps even “may be a little hard to swallow,” but she also sees it as a great showcase for Tom Hanks, writing,
But you’re probably not coming to “Finch” for lessons, you’re coming to “Finch” for Hanks. The good news is that he’s not just the reason to show up, he’s the reason to stay around as well.
David Ehrlich has reviewed Finch for IndieWire, and he throws some seriously high praise at the film – specifically highlighting Caleb Landry Jones’ performance-capture character Jeff as “one of the best movie robots ever.” He posits in his piece that,
[Caleb Landry Jones] delivers a heartfelt and consistently hilarious performance that elevates Jeff alongside the likes of Gort, R2-D2, and Fritz Lang’s Maschinemensch in the pantheon of cinema’s greatest full metal characters.
It should be noted that Finch isn’t quite receiving universal praise. Among those who weren’t won over by the new Tom Hanks movie is critic Mike D’Angelo, who writes for the AV Club that that streaming release has a bit of a tone problem – specifically matching its optimistic characters with a horrific setting:
Finch’s main problem is its amiable, low-key vibe, which feels at odds with such a grim scenario. At times, the movie plays like a buddy comedy, with Finch as exasperated straight man and Jeff as accident-prone goofball; when Finch tells Jeff that the solar flare turned Earth’s sky into Swiss cheese, the robot takes his words literally and stares upward seeking actual dairy products.
Apple TV+ subscribers will be able to make their own judgements, as Finch will be arriving in just a couple days – specifically this Friday, November 5.
