‘Finch’ review: Tom Hanks battles the elements alone. Didn’t he do this in ‘Cast Away’? Yes, but this time it’s the apocalypse!

A surprisingly upbeat apocalyptic tale, “Finch” stars Tom Hanks in the title role as a man who, sensing his days are numbered, builds an android to look after his dog. Judging by the barren landscape empty of life (human or otherwise) and his own wheezing and coughing, Finch’s last breath probably isn’t too far off. But until then, it’s Tom Hanks versus the elements — including his own frazzled psyche — and if that sounds familiar, like a dystopian version of “Cast Away,” well, the film itself doesn’t offer many counterpoints in this solo survival story of a man who manages to retain a modicum of humor and ingenuity even as he stares down his own mortality.

Set in the near future (the abandoned cars and dusty landscape look recognizably now-ish), the Earth — or at least St. Louis, where the story initially takes place — has become uninhabitable thanks to a deteriorating ozone layer no longer offering protection from the sun’s UV radiation. There’s not another soul around, only a robotics engineer (Hanks in amiable Hanksian mode) who spends his days driving around singing along to “American Pie” and donning a kind of space suit and helmet that allows him to venture out safely into the sunlight. He goes from empty storefront to empty storefront, scrounging for any remaining food and supplies, stopping to spray paint “cleared” on the outside of each building after rifling through its contents. Then he heads back to his warehouse bunker, where he lives with his scruffy dog, Goodyear.

Finch’s setup looks pretty decent, all (dire) things considered. He apparently has access to fresh water and a power source that keeps the lights on and the fridge running. A turntable plays records while he tinkers over a bipedal robot (CGI and voiced by Caleb Landry Jones) that he has built for a specific purpose: To care for and feed Goodyear after Finch is dead and gone. Yes, this is the movie’s plot. I suppose there have been worse.

Originally scheduled for a theatrical release last year, the pandemic complicated those plans so much so that Universal finally threw up its hands and sold the film to Apple TV+. Director Miguel Sapochnik (known primarily for his Emmy-winning work on “Game of Thrones”) hasn’t found a visually distinctive look for the film, nor has he shaped the narrative into an arc that hits you in the gut at key moments. Hanks is always a draw and he’s a pro at this sort of thing, more or less conversing with himself in a cranky-avuncular fashion, but the story is as thin as that disappearing ozone layer of the premise: Finch envisions no endgame beyond ensuring there’s someone to open a can of food every day for his dog.

Bad weather means Finch & Co. are forced to seek out a more hospitable locale, so they climb into a souped-up RV and hit the road, and even though there’s a humanoid along for the ride, Finch doesn’t seem particularly sucked into the illusion that he now has a friend in Jeff to commune with. We know this because he’s a self-proclaimed loner and says things like, “You have one job: Take care of this dog. It’s the only reason I made you, it’s the only reason you exist. I don’t need companionship, I don’t need a friend — I need you to do your job.” But he has equipped Jeff with the kind of artificial intelligence that allows him to not only intuit and experience human emotions, but to do very humanlike things like gesture or flinch or look down when he hears something sad. That this android would be sentient and actually register Finch’s annoyance and anger seems like an incredibly sophisticated if pointless technological achievement, considering Jeff’s existence is intended for no other purpose than doggy day care.

Though not originally produced with streaming in mind, “Finch” absolutely feels like it was designed by algorithm. A chatty Tom Hanks on his own against the odds? Check. A cute dog as his loyal companion? Check. An anthropomorphic robot that grows up, Pinocchio-style, to become a real boy? Check. A sci-fi facade for a story that turns out to be little more than prepper hagiography? Check. And I’m sure a company like Boston Dynamics is more than happy to see Hollywood portray robots of this type as sweet and childlike — a pal to man and dog alike — rather than potentially violent tools of the state.

Jeff is naif-like and eager to please and this forever exasperates his maker — “I know you were born yesterday, but it’s time for you to grow up!” Finch barks — but at least screenwriters Craig Luck and Ivor Powell gave Jeff a personality. Goodyear is simply: Dog. Likes to chase after a tossed ball and fall asleep in Finch’s arms and he’s a nice enough presence but generically so, with no discernible personality of his own. Take that in for a moment: The only creature Finch has had around for company — whose very existence inspired all of these exhaustive efforts — isn’t a character so much as a plot device.

This is consistent with most American TV and film, where there’s often a staged quality to the interactions between humans and dogs, as if you could sense the animal handler coaching from off-camera. This is not how domesticated animals move through and experience the world, no matter how well-behaved. Am I more interested in the dog than whatever else “Finch” is doing? Yes, because when a filmmaker gets it right, it can feel so unexpected and remarkably moving. The modest 2015 Chilean film “Pearl” (“Perla: La Pelicula”) found a way to build a fictional story around the abandoned street dog of the title, conveying her own very dog-like psychology in ways that actually show up on screen. In the case of “Finch,” that’s missing. And it’s a problem. We’re supposed to be wrapped up in this man’s love for his dog, but we never get a sense of their relationship beyond a few games of fetch. Anyone who has pets knows they are more than just blank, cuddly bodies of fur. They wander at will and have curiosities and desires and emotions all their own.

I suspect even an apocalypse wouldn’t change that.

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'FINCH'

2.5 stars (out of 4)

MPAA rating: PG-13 (for brief violent images)

Running time: 1:55

Where to watch: Streaming Friday on Apple TV+