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I hadn't read Donna Tartt's novel The Goldfinch, but the reviews have been polarizing since its release in 2013. The story seemed to be too convoluted for my tastes, so I had pushed it aside. I started becoming intrigued when the film adaptation was beginning its marketing. With an excellent cast led by Ansel Elgort and Nicole Kidman and directed by Brooklyn helmer John Crowley, I was sure The Goldfinch would be one of the biggest award contenders of the season. Unfortunately, not only was this a big disappointment - but this is a bloated, hallow film that can win the award for being the snoozefest of the year.

Theo Decker had experienced a tragedy during his childhood, as he had lost his mother in a bombing at an art museum. The film follows him as a child (played by Oakes Fegley) and an adult (played by Ansel Elgort), going through traumatic phases after the loss of his mother. As a child, Theo ends up temporarily staying with the Barbour family and starts a close relationship with matriarch Samantha (played by Kidman), before his estranged alcoholic father (played by Luke Wilson) comes to claim him. Meanwhile in his adulthood, Theo is led into the world of art forgery and is accused of stealing the priceless titular painting. There is a lot that occurs in The Goldfinch, but the execution of it is terrible.

From the very start of the film, everything feels so lifeless. There is no soul ingrained into The Goldfinch, which is a shame consider how brilliant Crowley's last film was. He hasn't directed a lot of films, but after Brooklyn - I expected nothing but great coming out of him and while every director has their missteps, this is a huge one for him. The Goldfinch was jumbled and even if that's how it was in the novel, Crowley and Oscar-nominated screenwriter Peter Straughan (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) should've found a way to create a more cohered storyline. The shifting between Theo's childhood and adulthood was jarring and it would transition during the oddest sequences - it left me baffled.

I love a majority of the cast here and all of them are flat here, minus Fegley, who is outstanding here. It is definitely apparent that the sequences with young Theo are superior to the ones with older Theo. Fegley gives it his all here and he definitely managed to keep me engrossed somehow, despite hating the events occurring on screen. Elgort is coming off a Golden Globe nomination for Baby Driver, but man, what a miscast here. He's out-of-place and doesn't convey enough to make me convinced he's the perfect choice as the lead character. Everyone else looks like their on sleeping pills and are nowhere near as good as they should've been, especially Finn Wolfhard doing one of the worst fake accents I've ever heard.

Besides Fegley's terrific performance, the film does look gorgeous, which isn't a surprise considering Roger Deakins shot it. While this may not be one of the better looking films, I was still in awe of the shots he incorporated into The Goldfinch. There are few cinematographers out there that manage to incorporate perfection into the looks of even the worst of films. Deakins, luckily, is able to redeem himself later this year with Sam Mendes' 1917. 

It is hopeful that The Goldfinch is a wake-up call for Crowley, Straughan and everyone else involved to not end up joining a bloated project like this. I wish that there was way I could get back the 149 minutes I spent when watching this film. Every so often a terrible film comes along and every copy of this needs to be placed in a storage unit, where it can be bombed. Therefore no one can witness the atrociousness that The Goldfinch truly is.