The first reviews of the high-profile adaptation of Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Goldfinch are in and critics aren’t being kind.
After its premiere at Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), the film – which stars Ansel Elgort, Nicole Kidman and Finn Wolfhard – was branded “disappointing”, ”bland” and “a gigantic waste of time”.
The movie, directed by John Crowley (Brooklyn), is based on the 2013 novel by Donna Tartt and follows a boy who is taken in by a wealthy family after his mother is killed in a bombing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Collider's critic Matt Goldberg called it “one of the worst movies” of 2019, while David Ehrlich – writing for IndieWire – said the “lifeless” film is a “disaster”.
Variety praised the performances, but said the film gets “...too lost in the maze of its designer seriousness”.
Some critics were more supportive of the film, with The Guardian awarding the “elegantly made” film three stars and Vanity Fair‘s Richard Lawson saying it is “sure to be liked”.
The Goldfinch will be released in the UK on 27 September.
