Gold Reviews

Kenny Wells (Matthew McConaughey) is a down-on-his-luck prospector who's running his late father's once lucrative mining company out of a Reno, NV, bar in 1988. Desperate to strike it rich, Kenny sets up a meeting with respected geologist Mike Acosta (Edgar Ramirez), who has a theory about a "ring of fire" in Indonesia that is supposedly home to a large gold deposit. Wells convinces Acosta to partner with him, and the two soon set up a small mining operation in the middle of a dense Indonesian jungle. A few weeks into their dig, during which Wells nearly dies from malaria, the men do indeed find gold. Not only that, it's a mother lode that could be worth billions. Predictably, Wall Street sharks and rival mining businesses begin to circle the pair to get a cut of the action. As the old saying goes, "a fool and his money are soon parted," and that's what happens. But who is the biggest fool? The answer to that question is what Gold is all about.Anyone familiar with Canada's Bre-X mining scandal in the 1990s knows how Gold plays out. If you aren't aware of it, don't worry -- there won't be any spoilers here. Suffice it to say, the true events offer up a rich vein of material. Unfortunately, Gold focuses more on Wells than the twisty story, shoving his plethora of colorful cohorts to the sidelines. McConaughey put on a lot of extra weight for the role, and director Stephen Gaghan (Syriana) shows off the Oscar winner's potbelly, chunky thighs, and plumb butt as frequently as possible. McConaughey also sports crooked teeth, the worst hair in recent memory, and continually smokes and drinks; if the actor looked this bad in his sleek car commercials, Lincoln sales would plummet. Yet Wells' looks aren't the only thing off-putting about him -- his personal character is equally repulsive. It's obvious that he's an oily wheeler-dealer from the get-go, one who's only interested in money, money, money. We're supposed to care when he loses his shirt to the Yankee suits, but it's difficult to conjure up much sympathy for such a self-absorbed moron.It also doesn't help that McConaughey plays Wells more like a cartoon character than a flesh-and-blood human being. His hammy performance stands in sharp contrast to the thoughtful, nuanced portrayals offered up by Ramirez and, especially, Bryce Dallas Howard, the latter playing Wells' long-suffering girlfriend Kay. The film is at its best when it focuses on Wells' relationships with these two: An argument that erupts in a ritzy New York hotel suite between Wells and Kay, who can see that the Wall Streeters are playing him for the sucker he is, bustles with energy. Sadly, the rest of the movie sags like Wells' flabby behind. It desperately needed a shot of adrenaline to give it the nervous energy that Martin Scorsese injected into his own greed-fueled epic, The Wolf of Wall Street.The one thing Gold has going for it is an eleventh-hour twist that is a real beaut. But it comes too late to dig the picture out of the sorrowful pit shoveled by McConaughey, Gaghan, and screenwriters Patrick Massett and John Zinman, who were sitting on a treasure trove of material and proceeded to squander it. So, who is the biggest fool? Anyone who buys a ticket to this cinematic equivalent of fool's gold.