“The Goldfinch” released on Sept. 13, is a prime example of Hollywood flattening out a beloved book by trying to recreate it into a feature film.
John Crowley directed the movie adaptation of Donna Tartt’s 2013 novel “The Goldfinch,” which went to revive a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Adapted by award-winning screenwriter Peter Straughan, it appears to be a promising film at surface level. The casting list is stacked with a wide variety of well-known actors and actresses of all ages. Ansel Elgort, Finn Wolfhard Nicole Kidman, and Sarah Paulson, are among the lead roles.
The film encompasses the life of Theo Deckerand and the trials of his childhood and adulthood. Theo’s mother passes away in a museum bombing when he is a young age, and he is left to face his alcoholic father. Theo holds a painting of a small, chained-up bird close to him as a sliver of hope from the traumatic death of his mother – the goldfinch.
The story line crosses time frames between Theo’s time as art forger in his adult-life and how events in both stages of life affect how he views the world and builds relationships.
“The Goldfinch” production held price tag slightly above $40 million with just $2.68 million grossed for the opening weekend. It seems as though the narrative wasn’t quite compelling enough to transfer from novel to an on-screen adaptation. Online reviews certainly do not hold the same ground as box office numbers, but when deciding on what you should go see in theaters you can’t help but notice the 25% review on Rotten Tomatoes.
A movie needs more than just a stacked cast for it to be successful. For the movie to be a drama, rated R, and also 2.5 hours long, word-of-mouth from online reviews needs to be strong enough to pull the public to the theaters. “The Goldfinch” lacked these qualities.
The film seemed as though the scenes were stacked on top each other trying to portray all the character trials. They awkwardly jumbled together. It isn’t so much as to say the book didn’t have the potential to transfer to on-screen, but there may just have been too much information to fit in the 2.5 hours time frame to avoid the flop in the first place.
“The Goldfinch” would be a perfect fit for a TV series with multiple seasons. This way, the novel could be presented in a thorough way to satisfy viewers and fans. It is likely that the film would have had a greater success if it was launched on a streaming service such as Netflix.
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