Movie Review - The Goldfinch

Donna Tartt's novel won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It spent over thirty weeks on the bestseller list. Its success made it inevitable that it would be adapted into a film. Written by Oscar-nominee Peter Straughan (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), the film seems to be a faithful cinematic telling of the book. That book is able to go into details in its near 800-page layout. This film is lengthy in its nearly three-hour run but still it feels inadequate. Yet, the screenplay also feels like it's trying to cram everything from the book when perhaps some things should have been left on the cutting room floor. Directed by John Crowley (Brooklyn), the film moves with such a lethargy that doesn't help. Films can have a slow pace or a deliberate pace but not if it's inadequate to fill out the story or the characters. What also doesn't help are the performances, including that of the protagonist. For a large chunk of the film, the protagonist is a blank. Two actors play the protagonist. The younger actor is better than the older one, but that perhaps has more to do with the script or the direction. That being said, I would have preferred that most of the stuff with the younger actor be excised.

Ansel Elgort (Baby Driver and The Fault in Our Stars) stars as Theodore Decker aka Theo, a boy who survived a terrorist bombing of a museum in New York City when he was a teenager. His mother was killed in the bombing. His father wasn't there, so he lived, but Theo's father was an alcoholic. Later, an antiques dealer, played by Jeffrey Wright (Westworld and Angels in America) who is also a wood craftsman practically adopts the teen boy and raises Theo like a son. Before the bombing, Theo sees a redheaded girl with an old man. He becomes intrigued with the girl who also survives the bombing, but the old man who was with her gives Theo his ring and also instructs him to save a painting in the museum.

Theo does so, but he doesn't tell anybody that he saved the painting. Theo instead keeps it and hides it. In fact, he wraps it up in newspaper and never looks at it for years. He knows he basically stole a painting, but it never becomes an issue for him until he grows up and starts working for the antiques dealer. When the dealer's store starts having financial troubles, Theo begins selling fake antiques to people or passing the antiques off as more historical or significant than they really are. It's in this that the film becomes analogous to Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018). Unfortunately, Straughan's script doesn't devote enough time to this criminal element to make us care or be invested in any way. Elgort's performance certainly doesn't rise to the level of Melissa McCarthy's Oscar-nominated role.

Oakes Fegley (Wonderstruck and Pete's Dragon) co-stars as younger Theo or Theo as a 13-year-old. Before being adopted by the antiques dealer, Theo stays with a wealthy family of a schoolmate. Given that Nicole Kidman plays the mother of that wealthy family, the movie feels like it might venture into similar territory as Lion (2016). That film though doesn't spend too much time with the child or not as much as here, but what little we get in that 2016 film was more effective than the time we spend with young Theo. Fegley is good at portraying the trauma and loss of this teenage boy. The film is okay with establishing his connection to the wealthy family, but again it feels inadequate. At the same time, the film spins its wheels with the teen boy, spending too much with him and detracting from what will be Elgort's performance.

It's strange, but the titular painting that more or less becomes a MacGuffin feels even less necessary here than the typical MacGuffin. The plot that arises concerning the painting feels so inconsequential. In fact, the only time we ever see the painting is briefly at the end. For a nearly three-hour film, the titular object is only on screen for a few seconds in the final shot. Yet, there's some intrigue over drug dealers trying to use the painting as collateral and then there's a Dutch heist to retrieve it. Unfortunately, all of it feels boring and not like any of it matters at all.

Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things and It Chapter Two) plays Boris, a fellow teenager whom Theo meets in Las Vegas. Boris is a character that figures into the Dutch heist of the painting. He's supposed to be established as a friend to Theo who introduces him to drugs  and becomes a confidant when things go bad for Theo. Because I think the Dutch heist is so inconsequential, I would almost remove the character of Boris from this film entirely. I would also remove it because Boris is a Ukrainian immigrant and Wolfhard doesn't totally nail the accent required of him.

Yet, I also would keep the character because it presents an aspect that is unfortunately not truly explored. At one point, Theo and Boris are in bed together as teens and they're both embracing each other. Later, Boris gives Theo a surprise kiss before running off and the two separating for years. However, when Theo and Boris are adults and reconnect, that moment and that kiss are never mentioned. The two hang out in a bar and have drinks, yet at no point during their reminiscing does that kiss come up in their conversation. It's not to say that Boris is gay or bisexual, but it's another missed opportunity in a mainstream film for same-sex attraction or homosocial affection to be broached.

Rated R for drug use and language.
Running Time: 2 hr. and 29 mins.