Why We’ll Be Checking Out “The Goldfinch”

If there’s no other reason to be interested in The Goldfinch it will be that it simply looks like the kind of provocative story that might lead somewhere interesting since it has a great deal to do with the human psyche and how we tend to filter things in the wake of a tragedy. When Theodore Decker loses his mother in the bombing of an art museum his young life is irrevocably changed in many different ways as he exhibits a series of troubled behaviors during his growth and eventually becomes a forger of great art, or so it sounds. One might wonder how a terrible tragedy might set someone on such a path, but it’s hard to explain why the mind takes the paths it does at times, particularly in the wake of a traumatic event that shakes the very foundations that a person’s mental state is built upon. Going through such an event when one is still young can also be a massive shift that can cause a personality to change in a big way, but so far from the trailer it would seem that there is only one major grounding point that the main character is going to hold to, and that is the painting of the goldfinch that he was looking at before everything changed.

So far one major reason to watch this movie is that the cast is nothing less than impressive as it features Ansel Elgort, Nicole Kidman, Finn Wolfhard, Jeffrey Wright, and Sarah Paulson just to name a few. It would seem that some movies these days, well, many movies, are trying to make bank on packing in as much talent as they can possibly get, without going after some of the bigger, more expensive actors that might consume a good portion of the budget. That’s not to say that the actors in this movie aren’t demanding or in any way worth it, but there are in fact some individuals in show business that seem untouchable to all but those movies that they decide they want to participate in, or those that can pay their salary. To be fair even the big-name individuals do manage to participate in movies that have less of a budget, showing that they do in fact care about the craft more than the money at any given time. But there are moments when using those wh are on their way up or are not as in demand as others seems to bring a bit of feeling to a movie that allows people to sit and watch the movie without expecting too much from the actors within the movie. That would appear to be the case with The Goldfinch, as a good number of the actors in this film are those that are still in demand, but are still known to participate in movies that are more niche and less mainstream.

Some might want to argue with this, but the idea of The Goldfinch isn’t quite as sensationalist as many other movies that have been coming out as of late, and it’s likely that it could possibly go unnoticed by a lot of people that are actively looking to the horror, action, and various other genres for their entertainment this coming fall. The Goldfinch is likely to cater more to people that are willing to sit and be entertained and ask to think in a much more existential manner at the same time. While some might pass on this movie simply because it deals with more inner turmoil and not enough flash and bang for their buck, there do seem to be many that will gladly sit and experience the pain and the anguish of those that survive the museum bombing that sets things into motion, and will consider every last little piece of the puzzle that will hopefully be slowly revealed throughout the movie.

For many of the actors this isn’t so much a jog from the usual fare they participate in as it is a chance to show yet another side of their character as they explore a story that is less action, less intrigue, and more about humanity on a level that many people don’t seem to want to look at in such depth more often than not. Just about every actor in this movie has a varied and very well-rounded resume when it comes to movies, so it’s not at all unusual to see them in this capacity, nor is it even close to being out of their wheelhouse. After all, Ansel starred in The Fault in Our Stars, a very touching and heartfelt movie in which he played the part of a young man that was slowly dying but still wanted to grasp life as much as he could. This movie seems to move in the opposite direction of that, but it could be equally impressive.