My concerns for the adaptation of The Goldfinch

An editorial by Brooks Rich

September is the start of Oscar season. All those high profile films that will be vying for the big prize of best picture, (it's never the true best picture of the year, but I won't get into that here,) are released starting in September. The first major contender will be the adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Goldfinch, releasing on September 13 and directed by John Crowley, who gave us the film Brooklyn in 2015, which was very good. Roger Deakins is the cinematographer and the cast is stacked, maybe the most stacked cast of the year. All signs point to a major Oscar contender. 

Personally I don't think the film is going to work. Now I do have some amount of bias because this is one of my favorite novels. I adore this book and have read it a ridiculous amount of times. The plot, in the very basic of terms, centers on thirteen-year-old Theodore "Theo" Decker, an adolescent growing up in New York City who loses his mother to a terrorist bombing at an art museum. While escaping the museum, Theo is given a painting his mother was admiring earlier. A painting of a gold finch. The rest of the novel is a startling, in-depth coming of age tale as Theo travels from New York to Las Vegas and back to New York, all the while holding onto this painting. It's an impressive and staggering piece of literature and if I ever create a book blog, that'll be the first book I cover. 

So why do I think this film won't work? There's two main concerns I have with adapting this film to the screen. The first could possibly be fixed if it was a series on Netflix or HBO. The novel is so large and intense and there's so much to dive into that I find it hard to believe it can be justified in two and a half hours. Even if this film is three and a half hours, it'll have a hard time establishing the characters and situations. Boris in Las Vegas alone should get his own film for God's sake. 

My second reason is not a slam on any of the actors. This is an impressive cast and they all have their merits as actors. But I don't see how anyone can properly portray Theo. He's the narrator and his growth and development in the novel is the main driving force...... the establishment of his moral code and his love for art. He's a character we spend a lot of time listening to as he goes inside his own mind. How does any visual adaptation of that work? Boris is another character which I have a hard time believing can be justifiably performed. He's a very complex character in the novel, arguably the most important person in Theo's life, and relegating him to a supporting actor in a film doesn't seem right. 

Maybe I'm wrong. I could come on this blog after seeing this film and call it the best film of the year and say the Academy is crazy if they don't reward it Best Picture. Or I call it an unworthy piece of pretentious crap that bit off more than it could chew. Or it falls somewhere in the middle. Who knows? But I feel somewhat protective of a novel I have loved and cherished and gotten absorbed in time and time again. I don't want to see Hollywood come and just water it down and yet I am getting those vibes from the trailer.