'Gold' lacks urgency or adventurousness
Playing a Nevada wildcat prospector in 鈥淕old,鈥� Matthew McConaughey is potbellied, balding, and snaggletoothed. He seems to do his best work when he鈥檚 effacing his glamour, as in 鈥淒allas Buyers Club,鈥� where he lost so much weight for the role that, at times, the effect was more alarming than laudatory.
His performance in 鈥淕old,鈥� as Kenny Wells, isn鈥檛 quite up to his Oscar-winning work in "Dallas Buyers Club," but it鈥檚 nevertheless a rousing feat without which this movie would have far less to recommend it.
It鈥檚 the 1980s, and Wells, descended from a line of prospectors, has seen the family Washoe Mining Corporation fall into hard times. His office is the local bar; he shacks up with his adoring girlfriend, Kay (Bryce Dallas Howard), a waitress in the bar, because he鈥檚 lost his home; and he spends most of his time, when he鈥檚 not drunk, scheming ways to get back on top.
His moment comes when he pawns some jewelry and flies to Indonesia to partner, after much high-pressure coaxing, with a renowned, risk-taking geologist, Michael Acosta (脡dgar Ram铆rez), who is convinced there is gold in them thar hills.
What transpires 鈥� malaria, big gold strike, visions of untold riches, scurvy Wall Street investors, Indonesian militia, double and triple crosses 鈥� certainly allays boredom. But except for McConaughey鈥檚 performance, there is little sense of urgency or adventurousness in the way the narrative plays out. Director Stephen Gaghan, whose script for 鈥淪yriana鈥� was close to incomprehensible, and his screenwriters, Patrick Massett and John Zinman, cobble together the continuity by utilizing Wells鈥檚 voice-over narration and assorted flash-forwards, but to no great avail.
I suspect in the Trump era, we will be in for a spate of movies about the heady, shining ruthlessness of American go-getters. We鈥檝e already seen, among others, 鈥淎merican Hustle,鈥� 鈥淭he Wolf of Wall Street,鈥� and 鈥淭he Founder鈥� and we haven鈥檛 even gotten started. What differentiates 鈥淕old鈥� from that bunch is that Gold is a naif, not a cutthroat operator or con man. For all his snaggletoothed slobbiness, he鈥檚 supposed to embody the spirit that makes America great. Perhaps. But he鈥檚 also the spirit that makes America grate.聽Grade:聽B- (Rated Rated R for language throughout and some sexuality/nudity.) 聽
