'Finch' takeaway: Film understands the need for companionship

Finch is a film that goes deeper than a man building a robot to take care of his dog and legacy. It understands the concept of loneliness and the madness that one can spiral into as a result.

Expand Tweet

While it could have been executed better, Finch is a film that understands how loneliness can deteriorate a person's well-being. All of this being captured through the eyes of a robot.

The story does have a touching element to its center and adds enough emotional weight for the audience to better sympathize with the movie's characters.

Here's a breakdown of the main takeaways from Finch.

Tom Hanks' 'Finch' takeaways: Loneliness, trust, and regret

Loneliness is a terrible thing

The story begins with Finch Wienberg building his robot machine to help him take care of his dog after realizing that he has been exposed to radiation and contracts cancer.

Initially, his robot Jeff was primarily used to help Finch and to take care of his dog. But as the story continued, Jeff became more of a family member than a servant and was able to fill a void in Finch's life.

Loneliness can come at any time in a person's life, but not having anyone to talk to maybe the worst kind. Jeff is able to understand Finch's predicament and does his best to help even if he makes mistakes.

Trust is hard to earn and easy to break

Jeff the robot and Finch (Image via The New York Times)

Throughout the film, Finch talks about the concept of trust to Jeff. Out of fear for his safety, Finch cannot afford to trust other people that have survived the solar flare that hit Earth and wiped out much of its vegetation.

Finch is continually on the edge, which is why he is incredibly hard on his robot Jeff because if he can't trust his own creation with simple tasks, it would be impossible to trust anyone with anything.

'Finch' understands the pain of regret

Finch and his companions ready to suit up (Image via Roger Ebert)

In the film, Jeff is seen rummaging through Finch's things and comes across a series of postcards. A significant one is from his father, who sent the postcard from San Francisco, where the group intends to go.

However, most of the other postcards are blank, which leaves Finch filled with regret, wishing he had done more with the time he had.

Finch's plight of terminal sickness mixed with remorse leaves him with an unsatisfied feeling and warns the viewer of the toxicity of regrets.