Tom Hanks movies never fail to make me laugh, cry, and everything in between. From Forrest Gump and its timeless tales, to Castaway’s stressful and lonesome intensity, to the tear-jerking innocence of It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, I have never had a lack of emotional response to any of the movies that Hanks stars in. This is particularly interesting to me since generally speaking, I do not get too emotional during films.

Needless to say, I was intrigued when the news that Hanks would be the lead in a dystopian movie by the name of Finch. The brief description of the movie I got beforehand from my dad was just, “A guy with his dog and a robot.” For a quick summary, he did manage to nail down every single relevant character. 

Finch Weinberg, who is excellently portrayed by Hanks, is traveling the Earth that is now in ruins. Alongside him at all times are his only living and best friend, Goodyear, who is a canine, along with his two robots Dewey and Jeff (Caleb Landry Jones). The four of them are desperately trying to survive in a post-solar flare Earth where the daytime sun scorches anything and everything without the ozone layer as protection.

Weinberg is all alone in the world since most of the population either has already died or is doing everything they can to cling to the short time they have left. However, his dog, Goodyear, is worth more than his own soul, and he does everything to protect this pup. Although Dewey was created to help forage for things to aid in the survival of both Goodyear and Weinberg, Jeff was designated to protect Goodyear at all costs.

There is an oddly wholesome dynamic between all four of these characters. While unusual and probably plain weird to some, I thought it was actually very sweet. This unique connection between Weinberg, Goodyear, Dewey, and Jeff made the movie very original and engaging; the union between them wasn’t in just a practical fashion, as it is in Star Wars and other science fiction movies, but rather one of love and bond.

Although this is a given, I have to restate how flawless and dedicated Hanks’s acting is. He can slip into any role he is given—or at least, it definitely seems that way. Weinberg is a very complex character, so I was absolutely blown away by how his portrayal fit the story and the actor.

Despite the fact that the characters were shockingly spectacular, the setting wasn’t insanely new. The vast desert that was once lush and green expanded across most of the movie; however, I think that since it was caused by a solar flare, it is actually a possible outcome and state of the planet. I was caught between being impressed and underwhelmed by the setting. Thankfully, the other excellent elements made this irrelevant.

The best part of the entire movie was how little cliché there was. There was no romantic sludge tainting the plot, and there wasn’t a normal disaster that threw the main characters’ plan out of sorts. Honestly, there is no other movie like Finch; a similar feeling is given off by WALL-E, but the optimistic tone of the 2008 Disney movie makes it extremely disparate. In truth, I wasn’t expecting to like this movie that much. I thought it was going to be silly and typical, but I couldn’t have been further from the truth. Finch was an emotional twist on science fiction and dystopian society in a way that I have never seen before. I’m not even a huge fan of movies, but Finch is wildly underrated.