Despite stellar performances from Ansel Elgort, Oakes Fegley, and Jeffrey Wright, The Goldfinch proves to be just too melancholy in a very meandering fashion.

“There’s no hiding from this, son,” Mr. Dawson (Mark Rylance) warns Cillian Murphy’s character after he is rescued at sea. Dawson is referring to the German forces that surround the Allies at Dunkirk, but he could be referring ...