FilmSnobReviews

Title: Gold
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Stephen Gaghan
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Edgar Ramírez, Bryce Dallas Howard
Runtime: 2 hrs

What It Is: Kenny Wells (McConaughey) loves working in materials. His father was a prospector and so was his father before him. In this long line, there’s one mineral Kenny is always looking for…gold! When he teams with geologist Michael Acosta they believe they’ve found gold in the forest of Indonesia. Now they just need to prove it to folks that will back them. As the money starts rolling in so to do the surprises both good and bad.

What We Think: This film is kind of a mess. From an editing perspective, this thing is a catastrophe. Not only that but McConaughey is really sleepwalking through this. When coupled with Sea of Trees one could suspect the McConaugssiance is over. I don’t necessarily find this true. With both The Beach Bum and Stephen King adaptation The Dark Tower coming up I think he’ll be just fine. Edgar Ramirez has had a string of bad films, like the Point Break remake, and mediocre ones like Hands of Stone. We’ll see what the Netflix exclusive Bright brings. Character-wise the relationship between Kenny and Bryce Dallas Howard’s Kay is great, but the script and film manage to foul that up.

Our Grade: C, This is cinematic mediocrity at it’s finest. It isn’t offensively bad but just so blah. Based on a story that seems like it was interesting about a Canadian mineral company this script does nothing to tell the tale. I can’t recommend this highly. If you’re looking for a movie for the night perhaps you could throw this on if there’s really nothing else. Outside of that stay away and perhaps rewatch more superior work from McConaughey like Dallas Buyers Club or Interstellar if you want the complete McConaughey experience.