Finding You
Who doesn’t love a good old-fashioned romance movie?
Ok, lots of people don’t love romance movies, as a genre they are mocked constantly they are not well respected in the movie community. While the Romantic Comedy (Rom-Com) genre has gained some respect with movies like You’ve got mail, Isn’t It Romantic, When Harry Met Sally, etc. the straight romance genre has been regulated to either corny Hallmark movie, uber sexual movies i.e 50 Shades of Grey, or lousy remakes of bad young adult novels. And while Finding You does partially fall into the last category, it is based on a YA novel, there are some redeeming qualities about this movie that make it unique in its genre.
There are some troubling patterns that have become commonplace in both RomComs and romance films.
They are overtly sexual in nature, they may seem sweet but most movies in the romance genre boil down to lust and then maybe love later. Even ones based on YA novels, intended for teens end up being more about sex than love.
The relationship we are supposed to root for is actually unhealthy. The Notebook, Twilight, While You Were Sleeping, Hitch, to name a few all involve relationships that are full of lies, fights, and manipulation (Also maybe stalking), which are not the bases for a healthy long-term romantic relationship. And yet these relationships are held up as desirable.
The guys are never happy. In almost every romance movie you have a sweet kind girl who may be a bit high-strung or career-focused but overall is decent. And then the brooding bad boy, or the stiff as a bored emotional recluse or the hot-tempered damaged guy, and while the guy may physically save the girl, the girl saves him emotionally. This perception that the ideal guy is never happy, or emotionally available perpetuates a negative male stereotype that is harmful to men and women alike.
Do all Rom Coms and Romance movies have these problems? No, but most of them have at least two of the three. And even one can be harmful to the audience's perception of romance and relationships.
Finding You director and writer Brian Baugh set out to make a romance movie that avoids some of these problems and it shows in his movie’s unique PG rating. And while in some areas Finding You succeeds gloriously, Braugh’s inexperience shows through and makes for a really uneven movie.
The story follows a young musician, Finley Sinclair, as she travels to Ireland for a semester abroad after rejection following a less than stellar violin conservatory audition. There she meets teen heartthrob/movie star Beckett Rush and after some reluctance, on Finley's part, they fall in love. But the course of love never did run smooth, Beckett's manager/father and his beautiful but manipulative co-star have other plans for Beckett and his skyrocketing career, and falling in love does not fit into them. All the while Finley is working to find her sound and be ready for her next and final conservatory audition.
As I said before this romance movie has a PG rating and this is partly due to the fact there is virtually no sexual content, this movie is a romance, all about love and not about physical attraction. Baugh wanted to make a romance movie that his younger teen and tween daughter could watch without worrying about content. And in that regard he really did succeed, content-wise it is a fairly clean movie.
There is a sad storyline about an older Irish woman named Cathleen Sweeney, dying of cancer who Finley befriends. Finley learns that Cathleen's husband was physically abusive and Cathleen married him to protect her little sister. This caused a rift in the sister’s relationship that Finlay wants to repair before it is too late. While this storyline is darker than the rest of the movie, it is all handled tastefully.
One of the major issues this storyline and really the whole movie has is how clucky the reveal of information is. It just boils down to a new screenwriter who feels like he has to spoon-feed the audience all of the information so they don’t miss anything. But when writers do this it makes the characters themselves seem dense because they are overexplaining everything in the simplest terms, this isn’t the intention of the writer but it is the result. Also when a screenwriter is trying to put exposition into a story there are many ways to incorporate it without just saying it. The “show don’t tell” principle of screenwriting was straight up ignored in this film and the story and characters suffered for it.
Finley and Beckett’s relationship is sweet, if not a bit confusing. Finley’s personality is just inconsistent and it is hard to understand why she does what she does. She is supposed to be uptight but doesn’t seem that way for the first half of the movie and suddenly halfway through she becomes very blunt, meddles a lot, and tells it like it even if it hurts, at first it is startling because Finley had never done that before. Again this is an inconsistency in the writing and possibly the editing but it makes her relationship with Beckett confusing because who she is as a person is confusing. But to Baugh’s credit, Their relationship is sweet, and they make each other better, they root for each other, they help the other overcome their flaws, Beckett even stops Finley from meddling when she is about to cross a line (you know after that becomes part of their personality). They are a couple that has external forces working against them but at their core, they are loving and sweet and they also never lie to each other which I really appreciate.
The other high point that separated Finding You from the run-of-the-mill romance is Beckett. Beckett is a classic good guy, but more than that, he is an emotional goofball with a heart of gold. He breaks every romance movie male stereotype. He never manipulates or lies to Finley, he isn’t arrogant, he doesn’t run when things get hard, He supports her even when it is inconvenient and the biggest and most important stereotype smashing quality Beckett has... he is really responsible. He takes his responsibility to the people who work for and with him very seriously. He tries to handle fame responsibly and even with how he deals with people in the town, he takes responsibility for any trouble his presence might cause in the sleepy Irish town. Now, this doesn’t mean Beckett isn’t goofy and corny, he is, but he knows he is corny and that is all a part of his charm. And Goofy isn’t his only trait, he has a three-dimensional personality which makes goofy fun instead of concerning. He is also emotionally present and tells Finley what he is thinking and going through which is refreshing. In so many romance stories the plot would be resolved in 20 minutes if the characters would just verbalize their feelings to each other.
Finding You is not a great film. There are problems with every facet of filmmaking, writing, directing, acting, production. You can tell that while Brian Baugh tried his best, he didn’t exactly know what he was doing. However, the music is fun, the scenery is beautiful, the supporting cast is an Irish, whos who, of talent and in the end, it is all wrapped up with a satisfying bow. If you have a teen or tween girl this is a great starter romance movie for them to watch, epically for all of those sleepovers where they want to watch something girly but not dirty. This is one of the best options out there. And while it is far from perfect, if you are like me and enjoy watching a goofy cornball romance with a heart of gold, Finding You is a perfect choice.
Content Overview
Language: One Character says Shite once which is the Irish version of Sh*t but it is technically a different word and it is so fast most won’t catch it.
Sexual constant: Beckett’s Co-star Taylor says something suggestively to Beckett about talking in her hotel room and this gives a suggestive eyebrow wiggle, he doesn’t go. Someone tells Finley and Beckett no funny business.
Violence: Beckett’s movie is a high fantasy dragon movie, we see him with a fake makeup injury. And we see extras laying around pretending to be dead soldiers. There is talk about physical abuse and Cathleen says of her husband he could leave bruises where no one could see.
Objectionable Content: It is Ireland, there is a lot of drinking and being in pubs. None of the main characters drink but culturally it is around. Also, Finley takes fiddle lessons with the town homeless drunk who is a brilliant musician. We see him drunk and sleeping it off once in his establishing scene and he is never drunk again that we see. Finley reads the twilight books to Cathleen and I object to that, why twilight? Is that really the last book a dying person wants to hear? Come on Finley, you started reading her Pride and Prejudice how did you get to Twilight?!
