Theo is helped in a different way at the antique furniture shop run by Mrs. Unbeknownst to any of them, Theo has made off with one of the museum’s treasures, “The Goldfinch,” by the 17th century Dutch painter Carel Fabritius, and hidden it away. The father (Boyd Gaines) is pure dotty old New England, but the ultra-stylish mother ( Nicole Kidman) looks after him attentively. Instead of beginning with the triggering incident, a bombing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that kills the mother of 13-year-old Theodore Decker (Oakes Fegley), among others, the pic begins with Theo trying to fit in with the wealthy Barbour family who’s taken him in post-tragedy. In the end, there’s too much good stuff missing and yet not enough to serve as a satisfying meal. In terms of his excellent taste in material and choice of collaborators, his instincts remain unimpeachable.īut the filmmaking team, also including screenwriter Peter Straughan and the team of producers, had their hands more than full trying to figure out how to fit all these characters, and the various phases of their leading man’s life, into a narrative you could consume in one sitting. Director John Crowley greatly distinguished himself with his last outing, Brooklyn, which stands as one of the finest film adaptations of a first-rate piece of literature of this youngish century.
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