Review of Gold (2017) by Spangle — 10 Jul 2017

A rising star in the 1990s only wind up being written off as a pretty face in the 2000s, Matthew McConaughey found the first half of the 2010s to be the kindest and most successful of his career. Starring in critical hit after critical hit, McConaughey nabbed financial success via Magic Mike and Interstellar and netted Oscar gold in Dallas Buyers Club. Toss in some of the best performances of the decade in indie darling Mud and HBO series True Detective and the early 2010s are guaranteed to go down as the most successful critical stretch of the Texan actors career. Since then, however, he has struggled. From Gus Van Sant's stinker The Sea of Trees to the mixed Free State of Jones (which, as a McConaughey apologist, I liked), McConaughey's live action worked has slumped. In fact, aside from an animated turn in Kubo and the Two Strings, he has not been in a truly good film since 2014. It may not seem like that long of a time period, but for a man who made appearances in eight critical darlings between 2011 and 2014 plus an acclaimed television series in the time period, it is a real drought considering he was in five films in 2016.

One can see what drew him to Gold. Directed by Stephen Gaghan, Gold marked Gaghan's first directorial work since 2005's Syriana. For Gaghan to get up and direct again, it likely had to be one heck of a script. With the project having roots in 2011 with Michael Mann and Christian Bale sniffing around it, one cannot be blamed for being elated to see this modern day Treasure of the Sierra Madre pop up with Gaghan at the helm and McConaughey in the leading role. The end result, however, is a rather safe film that is enjoyable, often truly engaging, but always a big sloppy mess. One thing is for sure though: it is not a mess due to McConaughey, who once more fires on all cylinders. He is, however, starting to lose much of that good will built up in the "McConaissance". Should his next two projects, The Dark Tower and White Boy Rick, also be met with a mixed reception, who knows what the future will have in store for the man.

Treasure of the Sierra Madre this is not , however, even with Gaghan snatching the themes from that film of desperation, hope, greed, and dreams of striking it rich, and tossing it into this real life tale of two men who had fooled everyone into thinking they had the biggest gold find of the 1980s. A rags to riches tale, the film feels as though it is trying to play off of recent financial scam films such as The Wolf of Wall Street or The Big Short with the film being somewhat tongue-in-cheek and often told through narration. With the narration being in the form of an FBI interview, the film hardly earns any originality points. Taking the party scenes of those aforementioned financial films, blended with a gangster-style story of a man who strikes it rich, fights with his wife and dumps her for blonde bimbos, and has uproariously insane encounters abroad and at-home, Gold is a film that has been done many times before. For this, it is rather disappointing to watch in many respects given its general stale quality and the eternal feeling that this has all been done before.

Featuring a 1980s punk rock soundtrack that includes Joy Division, Iggy Pop, and Depeche Mode, Gold is a film about a moron and a genius coming together to strike it rich. The moron, Kenny Wells (Matthew McConaughey), is along for the ride. Michael Acosta (Edgar Ramirez) is a skilled con artist who, when Wells comes up to him with an offer to drill wherever, he opts to go 50-50 with the man and takes the financial world for a ride. Kenny, flush with cash and newly single from Kay (Bryce Dallas Howard), parties it up with naked blondes and has more play money than a man with his mental capacity should have. This punk rock party music accompanies these party scenes and adds this loose and casual nature to these scenes where it is easy to see that these moments are fleeting and the cash disposable. Kenny, a classic figure of a man who wishes to get rich but has no idea how to not be poor, rapidly finds himself in a position where all of the fame, fortune, and notoriety has crumbled around him. Right when he thought he was king of the world, it turned out everything he thought he knew could not have been further from reality.

The film’s clichés do hold it back as previously mentioned, but they are hardly detrimental. On the surface, its story and themes are compelling even if Gaghan breaks no new ground. In fact, in its depiction of a man who is just along for the ride rather than the mastermind himself, Gold does manage to set itself apart from any number of similar biopics. Unlike other films, this one gives you a hero who is an awful businessman and constantly makes the wrong decision, ensuring that the audience will recognize he could never be the mastermind behind this scandal.