The Goldfinch
Ambitious and undeniably gorgeous to look at, The Goldfinch is a sprawling mess that never finds the rhythm it needs to really come alive as a film.
Adapting Donna Tartt’sThe Goldfinchis no modest job . The Pulitzer Prize - winning novel ( published in 2013 ) spans 784 Thomas Nelson Page as it travel along the unwieldy life and times of one Theodore " Theo " Decker . But it ’s much more than just its length;The Goldfinchdeals in cosmic coincidences and dramatic twists of fate as it essay loss , trauma , guilty conscience , survival , love , and how the fragility of human existence give art its meaning . In other words , screenwriter Peter Straughan ( Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy ) and manager John Crowley ( Brooklyn ) had their piece of work cut out for them from the minute they agreed to taste anyway . challenging and undeniably gorgeous to search at , The Goldfinchis a sprawling raft that never ascertain the speech rhythm it require to really descend alive as a cinema .
Like its germ textile , The Goldfinchfocuses on two key period of time in Theo ’s life . In the first , he ’s a thirteen - year quondam son ( Oakes Fegley ) reeling from the death of his mother , who was killed in a terrorist bombing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art . The second takes place eight years later , as Theo ( now Ansel Elgort ) realise his living selling antiques . In an attempt to condense Tartt ’s original novel , the film prompt in a nonlinear fashion , jumping back and forth between these degree in sentence over the course of near two and a one-half hours . This is whereThe Goldfinchbegins to run into hassle ; there ’s typically little apparent logical system to its impressionist approach , make it unclear why its game dead transition from the past times to the time to come ( and vice versa ) in this manner .
Theoretically , The Goldfinchhas the right thought . It ’s a story about how the past controls us in almost phantasmic shipway , so it only seems fairish for the film to play around with clip . But in doing so this way , it makes the fortuitous encounters that capsicum pepper plant Theo ’s journey in the original Bible feel all the more contrived and artificial on the big screen . It also leavesThe Goldfinchwith minuscule time to give to really exploring any one of Theo ’s relationship , be it with Samantha Barbour ( Nicole Kidman ) , the rich socialite who adopt him in after his mother ’s decease , or James " Hobie " Hobart ( Jeffrey Wright ) , the gaffer crafter who becomes his mentor . Through no fault of these worker , Theo ’s interactions with his parental figures end up skirt tragically empty for it .
Theo ’s " romanticist " obsession with Pippa ( play by Ashleigh Cummings as an adult ) , the little girl who also outlive the Metropolitan bombardment , and engagement to Samantha ’s girl Kitsey ( Willa Fitzgerald ) are intend to feel empty by comparison . Still , the corroborate characters inThe Goldfinchseem like they ’re competing for screen clock time , with limited space to go around . That ’s specially the case in the scenes with Theo ’s addiction - riddled father Larry ( Luke Wilson ) and his girlfriend Xandra ( Sarah Paulson ) , as well as unseasoned Boris Pavlikovsky ( Finn Wolfhard ) , the Word of an Ukrainian émigré who becomes Theo ’s closest Quaker . This is also whereThe Goldfinchborders on becoming soupy and exploitive , as it races on through minute of teen disaffection , worked up and physical ill-usage , and unrealised fag romance that ought to leave a far more lasting impression than they do .
There ’s for certain something admirable aboutThe Goldfinchand its meticulously detail - oriented storytelling , even if its with child swings and attempts to cram so much of Tartt ’s original book into a more concise package never fully pan out . The movie ’s visuals are evenly impenetrable in grain and tones , but far more cohesive in their construction thanks to its fabled cinematographer Roger Deakins . The Goldfinchcan be reminiscent of Deakins ' previous workplace at times ( its habit of darkness and light bring his efforts onSicarioto mind ) , but is otherwise unseamed in the room it commingle Theo ’s haunting flashbacks to the 24-hour interval of the museum bombing with its sublimely chilly imaginativeness of New York , and the loneliness of Las Vegas ( where Larry and Xandra reside ) . For lengthened stretch , it could almost work as a silent film .
In fairness , most of the complaint one could raise aboutThe Goldfinchhave already been leveled against Tartt ’s original novel ( which , despite winning a Pulitzer , was and remains jolly polarizing ) . The picture show ’s muddled remixing of the taradiddle ’s chronology and push to pass over as many plot points from the Quran as possible simply compound these issues - to the point where it ’s hard to evidence what the movie is even trying to be about . But again , The Goldfinchdeserves respect for tackling such a intimidating challenge with sincerity and high artistry , even if its so - called Dickensian narration and metaphor ( including , yes , the titulary house painting that Theo " steal " ) are ill-chosen here than on the printed Thomas Nelson Page . For those who adore Tartt ’s book , this flawed reinterpretation might be enough for the very same reasons .
TRAILER
The Goldfinchis now work in U.S. theaters . It is 149 minute prospicient and is rated universal gas constant for drug usage and language .
establish on the best - selling novel by Donna Tartt , The Goldfinch follows the life of Theodore Decker , beginning with the daylight that his mother is killed in a terrorist onrush while the two of them are visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art . In the topsy-turvydom after the attack , Theo steals a picture from the museum , Carel Fabritius ’s The Goldfinch , and wangle to get off with taking the house painting because of the terms to the museum . The cinema follows Theo through young adulthood , and how his mother ’s death and the painting affect the path of his life . Ansel Elgort and Oakes Fegley star as Theo , alongside Finn Wolfhard , Jeffery Wright , and Nicole Kidman .
Jeffrey Wright and Oakes Fegley in The Goldfinch
