In 1940, as Nazi bombs fall on Great Britain and soldiers deploy for war, the Ministry of Information brings together a group of four misfits to make a feature-length propaganda movie. While the best and brightest of Britain are busy fighting the war, Lissa Evans's amusingly hapless characters in Their Finest are unprepared for their task: to make a film both to entertain British and American audiences and to promote the war effort. They are Ambrose Hilliard, an actor past his prime who insists he is still a leading man; Catrin Cole, a young writer; Edith Beadmore, a quiet and meticulous seamstress; and Arthur Frith, a shell-shocked soldier recently given the ambiguous title of Special Military Advisor. Despite the war and its effects, each is mostly concerned with personal long-term goals; for them the war is either an opportunity or an inconvenience.
On location, they come to understand the hard work behind the camera, and as they become involved, their sense of life before the war becomes more distant. Drawn together to play-act a largely fabricated moment from the war, their interactions change them. The narcissism that previously impeded Ambrose's ability to see the world begins to fail him. Catrin's writing opens her life to unimagined possibilities. After losing her home to a bomb, Edith struggles to find a more daring self. Being away from the war front gives Arthur time to understand that he's still alive. At first entertainingly clumsy, each character begins to step beyond their place of comfort and embrace the unpredictability and inconstancy of their wartime lives. This transformation gives Evans's comical story an earnest and contemplative heart. --Justus Joseph, bookseller at Elliott Bay Book Company