The Goldfinch, lushly shot in soft lighting with a cast who can act circles around anyone, ends up being an anemic snooze over which it is hard to muster any emotions. It has the sort of plot which is common in award winning books filled with unlikely characters and meaningful coincidences. But what it doesn't have is the sort of story that is interesting to watch people go through. I am a big believer that no novel is "unfilmable." One just needs to find a way to take the story and make it cinematic. Unfortunately pretty lighting just isn't enough to save this rather pretentious story.
Filled with all the Hallmarks of awardsbait The Goldfinch attempts to tell a grand meaningful narrative but barely manages to tell a compelling tale. Each and every character is a 2 dimensional set of cliches who are everything your stereotype of them would have them be. At the centre of this is a poor damaged boy who convinces himself he's done something terrible even thought we're all clear that he hasn't. He is the most vanilla of vanilla characters and since the whole movie hangs on how we're supposed to feel about him, and it's ever so hard to have any feelings for him, the whole movie ends up feeling lifeless. No one around is anything more than a stock character and he has no soul whatsoever. The film lurches through its unlikely coincidences and then wraps up in the most unbelievable manner in the last 20 minutes by having a character explain what happened off screen.
This is not how you make a novel like The Goldfinch "filmable."
The title refers to a painting referred to throughout the film. If ever there was an object in a movie that is the textbook definition of a "McGuffin" this is it. The painting is so irrelevant to the plot and the character's journey yet the story acts like everything hinges on it. This highlights what is essentially wrong with the film, a film that has so little to say and is about no one and nothing.
The Goldfinch
Starring: Ansel Elgort, Oakes Fegley, Nicole Kidman, Jeffery Wright, Finn Wolfhard, Sarah Paulson, Luke Wilson, Ashleigh Cummings, Denis O'Hare
Director: John Crowley
Writer: Peter Staughan
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