After the excellent Dallas Buyers Club and brilliant True Detective, I thought we’d put the rubbish films of the 2000’s behind us and I was really looking forward to seeing what McConaughey did next…
Gold is loosely based on a 1990’s mining scandal and tells the story of a struggling Nevada hustler and alcoholic Kenny Wells (Matthew McConaughey) who teams up with geologist Michael Acosta (Edgar Ramírez) to mine for gold in Indonesia.
The finding of gold leads to huge financial success for Wells and Acosta and as his company is floated on the stock market, Wells has to deal with corporations and businessmen who are after his success. As the story moves on, it appears that Acosta may have been lying to everyone about the gold.
Let’s start with the good things: Ramírez is good as the charismatic, cool and committed Acosta. Whilst there’s no chemistry at all between him and McConaughey (I’m assuming it was supposed to be some kind of bromance), he played his part very well. Bryce Dallas Howard is lovely as Well’s longterm partner, Kay, which is played with a real sweetness and genuine likability.
That’s the good bits, now onto the bad…
The overweight and balding McConaughey is awful and it's the combination of his hammy, trying-too-hard acting and the fact that this character is so, so, so unlikeable. So over-the-top, lacking in charm and with zero engagement with the audience.
Another weak element is the story, the writers tried to turn a financial scandal into a fairytale and it is actually quite insulting to the audience that they are expected to go along with this.
Verdict: A flat, dull mediocre-at-best film with a ridiculously over-the-top performance from McConaughey. Best avoided.
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