The Goldfinch Reviews

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Since this movie had been a huge critical and commercial flop when it was released, I had some rather low expectations but, to be honest, I thought it was not so bad after all. Still, it was definitely a good example that it is much easier to deliver a bad movie from a good story than to create a great movie from a bad story. At least, it made me quite eager to read the book it was adapted from which was apparently a huge best-seller and even won the Pulitzer prize. Indeed, the story was quite intriguing and many characters involved were really interesting and/or entertaining but, unfortunately, I’m afraid John Crowley really struggled to turn into something cohesive for the silver screen. Indeed, I'm afraid the directing was just terribly clunky. For example, sure, the book was told in retrospective first-person narration by the main character but there was no need to go several times back-and-forth between the young and the older Theo Decker. Then, I thought it was rather ridiculous that the main character didn’t bump once but twice completely randomly with someone he knew in New York. Seriously, it is one of the biggest cities in the world, with almost 9 million inhabitants, how high are the odds that something like this might ever happen? I thought it was also rather dubious that this young kid would manage to travel by bus all the way from Las Vegas to New York on his own and with a freaking dog! Finally, for most of the duration, the painting didn’t seem to have much impact on the life of the main character (it could have easily been removed and the story would have been exactly the same) and it was only during the 3^rd act that it became something major but it should have been so all along. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was a rather weak adaptation, I still don’t think it was a total disaster though, the characters involved were just too interesting for that, but there is no doubt that it could or should have been much better.