The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
‘Finding You’ entertains with its young-adult romance
‘Finding You’ entertains with its young-adult romance but misses its mark elsewhere
It should have been easy to become swept away by “Finding You.”
The easy-breezy youngadult romantic dramedy does carry us as far as Ireland, where writer-director Brian Baugh’s movie is set. Shot in and around Dublin, Clare, Offaly and Kildare — with the movie’s village scenes being filmed in the town of Carlingford — “Finding You” benefits more than a wee bit from its setting.
And as long as the theater-bound movie is concerned with its squeakyclean-romance main storyline — about a young movie star trying to win the heart of a violinist trying to stay focused as she works toward a life in music — “Finding You” mostly finds its mark.
However, its B plot, in which said girl aims to help a curmudgeonly woman in a nursing home repair her relationship with her sister, never quite hits home.
Adapted from Jenny B. Jones’ bestselling youngadult novel “There You’ll Find Me,” “Finding You” — like Baugh’s previous effort, 2019’s “The World We Make” — has the appealing Rose Reid as its female lead.
Reid is Finley Sinclair, whom we meet on the day of what proves to be an unsuccessful audition for a prestigious New York music conservatory. To re-energize and refocus, Finley decides to follow in the footsteps of her late older brother, Alex, by spending a semester abroad.
She stays with the same family that hosted — and adored — Alex, the Callaghans. While Nora (Fiona Bell, “Trainspotting”) and Sean (Ciaran McMahon) are pouring their energy into a bed-and-breakfast they’ve recently inherited in a sleepy coastal town, daughter Emma (delightful “Derry Girls” star Saoirse-Monica Jackson) is thrilled to be getting a sister of sorts.
On Finley’s transatlantic flight, a flight attendant offers her a free upgrade to an empty first-class seat. It’s pretty obvious she is doing this because of the young man in the seat next to hers, but Finley doesn’t pay him any attention. She does, however, awaken to find she’s been sleeping on the shoulder of Beckett Rush (Jedidiah Goodacre), a heartthrob movie star returning to Ireland to film the latest installment in the popular “Dawn of the Dragon” franchise.
Beckett pours on the charm, but Finley isn’t all that impressed, having seen photos of some of his exploits in a gossip magazine before knowing he was sitting next to her. (She may not be wowed, but he’s mobbed by girls wanting his autograph at the airport.)
Well, wouldn’t you know it — Beckett is staying at the Callaghans’ B&B. It’s a way for him to hide from fans and the press, and it’s a wonderful turn of events for Emma, even if Finley continues to be uninspired by his celebrity aura.
Beckett eventually is able to get Finley to spend time with him by helping him run his lines, and she does, of course, begin to warm to him — especially after letting him become her personal tour guide.
However, his managerfather (Tom Everett Scott, “That Thing You Do”) — who’s more the former than the latter these days — wants Beckett to focus on convincing the studio to greenlight a “Dragon” spinoff franchise for him. And then his co-star Taylor Risdale (Katherine McNamara), who, at least as the public is concerned, is his on-again-off-again reallife love interest.
Early on, as Finley is trying to fend off Beckett, she herself is being pushed away by Cathleen Sweeney (Vanessa Redgrave), a woman living out her days in a nursing home in a town where she is despised by many due to a mysterious event years ago involving her sister.
Finley is required to spend time with Cathleen for a school project, and the old woman eventually gives in and sits across from Finley as the latter reads her “Pride and Prejudice.” (And later “Twilight.”)
Despite having veteran actress Redgrave (“Julia,” “Howards End”), this storyline never justifies all the time spent on it.
A smaller subplot involving street musician and alcohol enthusiast Seamus (Patrick Bergin, “Sleeping With the Enemy”) passing on some of his knowledge about the fiddle to this violin player is slightly more satisfying.
Because Reid and Goodacre (“Chilling Adventures of Sabrina”) are cute together, “Finding You” works on its most basic level.
However, in the hands of Baugh, this feels more like a made-for-TV affair than the theatrical release it is.
There aren’t really any wrong notes here, but just as with Finley’s audition at the movie’s beginning, it just isn’t moving.