Finding You

Finding You (2021) is adapted from a young adult novel and belongs squarely to the Christian film category. Finley is a gifted violinist. She fails an audition for a New York conservatory and goes to a small coastal town in Ireland for a semester. On the plane she meets Beckett, a young film star travelling to the same town to shoot a fantasy picture. The first thread is their relationship and it proceeds exactly as expected. The second is more interesting: Finley is obliged to befriend a difficult old woman in a care home. What is actually wrong sits in the background. Her brother died and she cannot play any more. The rupture in her relationship with the violin is the most honest thing in the film. It is classified as a faith film but it does not preach; religion stays in the background and the message is more about grief and forgiveness. The Irish location work is its strongest element. The town and the coast are genuinely used rather than treated as scenery. Music matters here and the violin scenes are carefully done. It runs 119 minutes. Good for: young adult romance, light drama, and films set in Ireland. Less good for: the plot is entirely predictable, the running time is long, and it never leaves its template. It involves the loss of a sibling.