Review | Finch & Midland movie review: Anthony Wong and Patrick Tam can’t save grim diaspora drama
A strong cast is wasted in this undignified tale about Hong Kong immigrants struggling in Canada, which mistakes grimness for profundity
2.5/5 stars
The Hong Kong diaspora in Canada is subjected to an exercise in classic miserabilism in Finch & Midland, a delicately acted but loosely scripted portrait of ageing and loneliness that revolves around the uniformly depressing lives of four immigrants who arrived in the 1990s.
Although the title references a Toronto intersection synonymous with the city’s Hong Kong community, this character drama – the first feature of Canada-born writer-director Timothy Yeung – shows scant interest in that cultural legacy. Instead, it is content to wallow in the misery of its tritely sketched middle-aged protagonists.
First, we meet Dan (Patrick Tam Yiu-man), a divorcee who cannot quite let go of his glory days as a rising pop singer in late-1980s Hong Kong. Beyond struggling to maintain a part-time restaurant gig, the faded entertainer faces losing his estranged daughter (Samantha Ji) as his ex-wife remarries.
Equally anguished in her attempt to connect is Eva (Harriet Yeung Sze-man), who is unmarried, approaching 50 and trapped in a suffocating carer role for her ungrateful mother (Nina Paw Hee-ching), who favours Eva’s absentee brother. This bleak thread also sees Eva desperately yearning for male attention, only to be humiliated at every turn.