A poor man’s The Wolf of Wall Street, the Matthew McConaughey-starring Gold is a lackluster drama that relies heavily on uglifying the Oscar-winning actor. Boasting a receding hairline and large gut, McConaughey seems to relish the opportunity given to him–the opportunity is unfortunately fool’s gold.
Directed by Stephen Gaghan (Syriana), Gold is about a slightly sleazy entrepreneur who, along with his business partner (Edgar Ramirez), travels into the jungles of Indonesia to find gold. After striking it rich, they turn their venture into a large, publicly funded company.
While in hindsight that description makes the movie sound as dull as it actually is, the part about Indonesia was intriguing–but nothing about Gold is actually intriguing. McConaughey’s rough-around-the-edges character plays like a less charismatic and likable version of his role in The Lincoln Lawyer (or one of a dozen other rough-around-the-edges characters he’s played), and more effort appears to have been put into his appearance than developing a fully fleshed out character.
Gold slogs along from one plot point to the next, always hinting at something better just around the corner but never actually getting there. The screenplay is surprisingly generic, the direction and accompanying soundtrack merely reminiscent of better filmmaking elsewhere.
The movie does ratchet up when the “big twist” hits, and for a few minutes I was hooked, but then Gold reverts to desperately trying to be something that it isn’t: a good movie.
Review by Erik Samdahl unless otherwise indicated.