Directing: C+
Acting: B
Writing: C
Cinematography: B
Editing: B

Call it YA fiction, because that’s exactly what it is: Finding You is based on the YA novel There You’ll Find Me by Jenny B. Jones. Evidently, the film significantly departs from its source material, as reading through the Amazon user reviews of the novel, the story originally incorporated both anorexia and the main character’s “faith journey.” One book reviewer from 2019 writes, I'm looking forward to seeing the film adaption in 2020 and hope that the faith theme and Finley's personal struggles aren't glossed over since these are the heart of the story. Well, I’m sorry you’ll be disappointed, anonymous user from Hershey, PA!

I can’t really tell who this movie is for, which means, oddly, maybe the movie would have worked better for the same target audience of that novel, if it had been more faithful to it? Finding You says nothing about the faith of the main character, Finley (Rose Reid), until she finally locates the gravestone her late brother had sketched—and the camera lingers on an epitaph with a direct reference to God. I think that lady from Hershey will indeed think the “faith theme” was “glossed over.”

Instead, Finding You focuses on the context of Beckett Rush’s movie stardom, and how he and Finley fall in love while he’s filming another in a series of dragon fantasy movies in the small Irish town where Finley is studying abroad. As written and directed by Brian Baugh, to say that the entirety of Beckett’s life as a famous actor is contrived is an understatement. He’s a young but grown man, and somehow his father (Tom Everett Scott) has total control over every aspect of his professional and personal life, right down to making up romantic stories about Beckett’s relationship with his costar, Taylor (Katherine McNamara, in a much smaller role but somehow getting top billing). There’s a scene in which Taylor is trying to convince Beckett to stick with their made-up life in order to keep public interest turning into box office earnings. She says to him, “So few understand the life that we lead,” and I found myself thinking, Does this movie’s director even understand that?

This movie lost me within its first few minutes, when Finley is boarding her flight to Ireland from her hometown of New York, and a flight attendant just up and offers her a seat in first class because there happens to be an empty seat. Oh I see, so this movie is a complete fantasy. By the way, the airline is “Aer Lingus.” I thought that was ridiculous too, until I googled it and found out that is real. They get pretty prominent product placement in this movie. Am I the only person who sees the name “Aer Lingus” and thinks of mile-high cunnilingus? But I digress.

Finding You has some redeeming qualities. Rose Reid as Finley and Jedidiah Goodacre as Beckett have genuine onscreen chemistry, not to mention a natural screen presence that gives their performances a sincerity that transcends much of the bland formula of the script. It is perhaps for this reason only that I found myself sucked into the story in spite of its many flaws—well, that and Vanessa Redgrave in a supporting part as a local crotchety old lady. It’s always nice to spend screen time with Vanessa Redgrave.

But then the narrative cuts to Beckett on set, where the throwaway actor playing his director has the most ridiculous “European” accent I’ve ever heard. Trying to say the word “joke,” he literally says, “I made a yoke!” Is this supposed to be comedy? It’s embarrassing, is what it is.

At least the rest of the characters are well cast, including the Irish host family with whom Finley stays. And it’s helpful, actually, to cast relative unknowns as the leads (Jedidiah Goodacre played Dorian Gray in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina; this is Rose Reid’s fifth-ever acting credit), although it’s amusing to think how Goodacre’s personal life is still nothing like that of the famous actor he’s playing. In any event, those two are compelling enough to elicit hope that they both get better opportunities for meatier roles in far better films than this in their near future.

Overall: C+

[Opens Friday, May 14.]