With a great cast that includes Nicole Kidman and Jeffrey Wright, and a script based on Donna Tartt’s best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Goldfinch might just be the breakout of September—not that it’ll be too hard since September is basically like the new January for movies. The first trailer for the upcoming adaptation definitely looks the part, but the more pressing question is whether director John Crowley (Brooklyn) actually managed to pull this thing off. Ansel Elgort headlines The Goldfinch as Theodore Decker, a young man who lost his mother in a horrific terrorist attack when he was just a boy. Since then, his life has been a modern Dickensian tale: He hops from one home to the next, engages in illicit activities, harbors a massive secret, and falls for his very own version of Estella from Great Expectations.
Tartt’s novel is exceptional (I mean, it won a Pulitzer Prize), so there’s a bit of pressure on this adaptation to do her work justice. Having cinematographer Roger Deakins (!) and an excellent cast on board doesn’t hurt: In addition to the above, the film also stars Luke Wilson, Sarah Paulson, and Finn Wolfhard. Here’s the official synopsis for The Goldfinch, which arrives on September 13:
Theodore “Theo” Decker was 13 years old when his mother was killed in a bombing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The tragedy changes the course of his life,
sending him on a stirring odyssey of grief and guilt, reinvention and redemption, and even love. Through it all, he holds on to one tangible piece of hope from that terrible day…a painting of a tiny bird chained to its perch. The Goldfinch.