Film adaptation of 'The Goldfinch' a disjointed, impassionate coming-of-age drama

<h3 class="briefHead">"The Goldfinch" - ★ ★ </h3>

Donna Tartt took 11 years to write her 2013 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "The Goldfinch."

John Crowley's film adaptation feels almost as long.

Maybe you've noticed how many recent movies languish on the screen longer than they need to, especially those based on best-sellers where filmmakers work harder at creating faithful adaptations than they do at creating excellent motion pictures. (I'm looking at you, "It: Chapter 2.")

"The Goldfinch" brandishes an abundance of impeccable industry pedigrees.

Master cinematographer Roger Deakins paints widescreen murals with sumptuous brush strokes of light. Trevor Gureckis' fresh and vibrant score fills the emotional gaps.

Screenwriter Peter Straughan (of "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" credit) does his darnedest to preserve Tartt's novel.

Yet, Crowley (who directed the disarming period drama "Brooklyn") delivers a choppy, flatlined experience, as if a 10-part Netflix miniseries had been mercilessly squeezed into a 149-minute collection of disjointed vignettes.

A bomb at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art kills many people, among them the young mother of 13-year-old Theodore Decker (Oakes Fegley), now in the care of an upscale family headed by Mr. Barbour (Boyd Gaines) and his ultrachic wife, Mrs. Barbour (Nicole Kidman).

We later discover that a mysterious fellow in the explosion insisted the shellshocked Theo take a dust-encrusted painting from the rubble - "The Goldfinch," a 1654 image of a chained bird from Dutch master Carel Fabritius.

For years, Theo (later played by Ansel Elgort) keeps the painting wrapped in newspaper, hidden in storage as a reminder of his mother.

"The Goldfinch" painting serves as a classic macguffin in Tartt's coming-of-age story in which young Theo gets taken from his new family by his golddigger daddy Larry Decker (Luke Wilson), a washed-up actor living with a younger hot girlfriend (Sarah Paulson) in a desolate Las Vegas house located on a metaphorical dead-end street.

There, we become jolted out of our movie-viewing malaise by a wild Ukrainian-born kid named Boris (a sassy, androgynous goth played by Finn Wolfhard) who introduces Theo to a lifelong affair with drugs and alcohol.

Hilariously unrestrained, Boris has developed a bold talent for survival, one that will serve him (and Tartt's story) well years later in Amsterdam, when actor Aneurin Barnard picks up the character. He bears an uncanny resemblance to Wolfhard, but lacks his unbridled bad-boy joy.

Other supporting characters occupy "The Goldfinch" like too many people trying to cram into an elevator.

An antique furniture store owner named Hobie (Jeffrey Wright), a trusted friend of Mrs. Barbour's, becomes a father-figure to Theo.

A girl named Pippa (Aimee Laurence, later Ashleigh Cummings) provides a continuing romantic possibility for Theo, but he prefers the Barbours' grown daughter Kitsey (Willa Fitzgerald) for a serious relationship.

None of these characters lifts much dramatic weight in "The Goldfinch," itself a chained bird of sorts, for its beautiful sets, scenes, actors and music can never take flight while shackled to the premise that it must be a celebrated book on film instead of a celebrated film inspired by a book.

<b>Starring:</b> Ansel Elgort, Oakes Fegley, Nicole Kidman, Aneurin Barnard, Finn Wolfhard, Jeffrey Wright, Sarah Paulson, Luke Wilson

<b>Directed by:</b> John Crowley

<b>Other:</b> A Warner Bros. release. Rated R for drug use, language. 149 minutes