Brian Helgeland’s newest full and overly long feature, Finestkind, had its premiere at the 2023 Toronto Film Festival before becoming available to stream on Paramount+. While billed as a crime thriller, this movie is more of a family drama centered on two stepbrothers who grew up in different worlds but come together in their mutual love of commercial fishing. The crime thriller plot doesn’t kick in until way into the film, so the ending feels long overdue by the time it arrives.
Youngest brother Charlie recently graduated college and is all set to attend Law School in the fall, following in his wealthy father’s footsteps, while older brother Tom is captain of a fishing crew, just like his father, the terminally ill Ray. Tom eventually agrees to hire Charlie as a deckhand for the summer, and the young man is immediately enamoured with his sibling’s work, despite all the perils he faces out at sea. By perils, I mean the first boat they work on sinks while their second outing on Ray’s ship ends with the vessel impounded and a $100,000 fine courtesy of the Canadian Coast Guard.
Charlie and his new girlfriend, Mabel, come up with the genius idea for Tom and the crew to smuggle drugs to pay off the fine. But of course, things go wrong. In the final act, it seems both brothers are pushed against a wall. Let’s dive into the ending for Finestkind.
Finestkind Ending Explained
After a reluctant Tom agrees to smuggle heroin for Weeks, the slick Boston-based crime boss, things go from bad to worse for the fishing crew. On their way to meet with Weeks and hand over the drugs, Tom and Charlie seemingly get pulled over by police. But instead of arresting them, the men steal the heroin Tom was carrying in his back seat and flee the scene.
Things get heated at the crew’s favorite bar when Tom accuses Mabel of setting them up, an accusation she fervently denies.
When the crew gets to Costa’s apartment to “talk this out,” they find none other than an angry Weeks and friends threatening Costa’s pregnant wife with a gun. As far as Weeks is concerned, whoever staged the robbery was from Tom’s side of the deal. And they have less than 24 hours to retrieve the stolen drugs before Weeks sends them to the afterlife.
As Tom is busy taking Costa and his in-labour wife to the hospital, Charlie finds Mabel, who’s been beaten to a pulp by Weeks and his men. Charlie then buys a gun and spends a few minutes listening to Tommy Lee Jones’s character singing like the whales in the sea. Yes, really.
After a musical interlude with all the main characters appearing one by one on screen and looking sad, the following morning finds Charlie desperately searching for his brother.
Who betrayed Tom and Charlie?
He finds Tom at Skeemo’s house who is high on heroin. Tom is convinced Skeemo was the one who set up the robbery and points a gun at him. Eventually, Skeemo confessed to having done it because he’s a junkie. That’s all the explanation the movie gives us. And no one bothers asking Skeemo where to find the rest of the drugs.
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When Charlie arrives, he tries dissuading Tom from murdering Skeemo by giving him that one line that everyone in this film keeps repeating, “You live and you die. It’s the in-between part that’s important.”
How does Ray help Tom resolve his issues with Weeks?
At the donut shop, Ray walks in and tries to reason with Weeks, begging the gangster to leave Tom alone. Unsurprisingly, Weeks refuses. That’s when Ray pulls out his gun and kills him and his men.
When Tom and Charlie get there, they’re both shocked by the scene. But Tom and Ray share a tender father-son moment.
How do Charlie and Ray get the money to pay the fine?
Several days later, Charlie takes Mabel to meet his parents. While Mabel is bonding with her potential future mother-in-law, Charlie asks his dad for the money they need to pay the fine. Surprisingly, his dad agrees, and the two share a moment.
How does Finestkind end?
In the movie’s final scene, the Jolly Fishermen crew makes sure Finestkind (the boat, not the movie) sails right in front of an overly shackled Ray’s prison transport minibus. Tom wanted his father to know they managed to rescue the boat.
The question begs, however, why did Charlie think smuggling heroin was a preferable option to asking his father for help? Despite the movie’s multiple pointless expositional scenes, that particular part is never explained.
What did you think of the ending of Finestkind? Comment below.
RELATED: Where was Finestkind filmed?
