Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyer’s Club, Mud) stars as a balding, crooked toothed, potbellied Nevada gold prospector in a movie that, without his acting talent, would have been completely sifted through the Hollywood stream of consciousness. Instead, Stephen Gaghan’s (Syriana, Abandon) Gold, while flawed, is a watchable experience that takes audiences on a wild goose chase along with most of its stars and ultimately makes the destination an endpoint and the journey worthwhile.
Based on a true story, Gold takes place in the late 1980s. Kenny Wells is seven years removed from his father’s death and owner of the mining company that he works for. Business hasn’t gone particularly well for Kenny in recent years. He now works out of his wife Kay’s bar (Bryce Dallas Howard – Rocketman, Terminator Salvation). His hard sell phone calls trying to get people to invest in his new mining company come up empty. Each potential investor that Kenny tries to pitch to remind him that he has a value of almost nothing and that he has a huge debt load and that living on his father’s good name doesn’t work anymore, especially when investing huge amounts of capital. His company is currently trading for four cents a share.
Fast-forward a bit, and Kenny meets an Indonesian geologist who has a knack for finding gold and where exactly to dig in the country. Michael (Edgar Ramirez – The Bourne Ultimatum, Zero Dark Thirty) is a bit edgy and a bit mysterious. Still, he is also extremely friendly with the natives, ready for his next big find after discovering a copper mine in southern Asia. Michael tells the group of men that he can determine where there will be mineralization because of a combination of pressure, heat, and time…his “ring of fire” theory. His proven successful before. The men are sold. Michael is a sought-after man…one who Kenny is lucky to land, considering that he has no money to his name.
From this point on, Gold is filled with plenty of ups and downs as Kenny, Michael, and Michael’s crew look to strike gold (literally) in this tiny set location on a long river deep in an Indonesian jungle. It goes without saying that Michael instantly uses what little money Kenny can provide. In addition, Kenny gets sick with a case of Malaria while he is on location. Despite this, he promises the men he will instill a water purification system for their families in exchange for them staying on the job when they threaten to quit. All the pressure (literally) is on Michael to discover the gold, with time being of the essence.
Gold is a decent film that goes from maybe a C+ to a B because of McConaughey. He’s all in on this not so likable nor really sympathetic character. It’s not that Kenny is a bad guy. He’s just a guy that we have no interest in rooting for. He blew through his father’s money and now is struggling just to get by. His promising people nothing more than a little bit of luck. Yet his energy is what keeps us focused. There is a sense of emergency in everything he does. You think there would be enough with jungle life, gold, eerie dreams, scummy Wall Street investors, malaria, southeast Asia military, backstabbing, and double-crosses. And, yes, this is enough…for a C+ movie. Instead, McConaughey, through his constant pursuit of riches, lifts it to something more. There isn’t a moment that he rests and the few moments where he is not on screen are the ones where the film loses its luster. But even if it weren’t for his brilliance, there’s still enough of a story to keep you interested.
I liked Gold. See it for McConaughey. Stay for what transpires with the arching story.
Plot 8/10
Character Development 7/10
Character Chemistry 7/10
Acting 8/10
Screenplay 7/10
Directing 8/10
Cinematography 9/10
Sound 8/10
Hook and Reel 8/10
Universal Relevance 8/10
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