The Goldfinch

I finally committed to watching this movie in its full 149 minute runtime entirety, why is that such a big deal? Because I had zero enthusiasm to watch this movie, the trailers looked blah and boring while the reviews I read or watched were not to kind on it. Based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Donna Tartt that centers around the character of Theo in his youth and as an adult, played by Oakes Fegley and Ansel Elgort respectively. Theo had his world changed in an instant when he was young while visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art the day a bomb went off killing his mother, of the survivors a young girl he would come to be friend through his life and the painting the movie gets its name from that he takes, which will be his Macguffin through the movie that he carries everywhere. After the explosion he is taken in by a well to do family featuring Nicole Kidman who takes Theo in and develops a fondness for him and plans to bring him into their family until Luke Wilson shows up, Theo’s father, who takes him back to his house in the Nevada desert where there are more motivations than just to be a father once again to his son. But, it’s not all for nothing being dragged from the cozy comforts of the well to do family then moved to a dust bowl neighborhood because he befriends Boris played by Finn Wolfhard. Things progress and by happenings, Theo will end up living with Jeffrey Wright a colleague of a man who died next to Ansel Elgort in the museum that left a ring that connected the two, Theo would then live a life of antique furniture sales and trying to find his place in the world. Admittedly this is a vey fast paced summary of what happens in the movie which is quite the opposite is very slow paced. Directing the adaptation of the novel is John Crowley, who directed Brooklyn, I loved Brooklyn and did not know this was being directed by the same guy that did that until I started doing some research before actually hitting play. What I enjoyed about Brooklyn was the characters more than anything, while the characters in this movie are interesting which is largely what kept me going through this was being invested in what was going to happen to Theo as time goes by though and more and more I just started getting bored which I don’t know if its just the story, I have not read the book or if its just did not make the transition from page to screen well. I do have to say I enjoyed the younger scenes with Oakes Fegley more than I did with older Ansel Elgort who comes off pretty wooden in this movie. I also enjoyed seeing Finn Wolfhard in a new genre than he normally appears in and some of the scenes with him and Oakes were my favorite. Shot by Roger Deakins The Goldfinch is nothing if not gorgeous to look at, Deakins is slowly creeping his way up to being one of my favorite cinematographers. The big question is was this movie as bad as I was expecting it to be, actually it was not, I got invested in the character of Theo and the movie has some interesting themes it explores, I do not know if it was the cutting back and forth on the timeline or pieces of the book didn’t make it into the screenplay that made the movie kinda of a chaotic mess of scenes and character relationships. It’s not a movie for everyone, undoubtably if you read the book your most likely going to watch it, it was okay not something I am going to remember in a few months. C.