WHILE not a true story, Stephen Gaghan’s ‘Gold’ is based on the Bre-X scandal of the ‘90s when a prospector named Michael de Guzman and penny stock promoter David Walsh appeared not only to be sitting on a goldmine in Indonesia, but to also own it, be mining it and be making $billions out of it.
The rags to riches and back to rags story has been adapted, tweaked and sprinkled with just enough Hollywood glitter to make this an enjoyable, if slightly clichéd and thin caper.
With similar style as last year’s ‘War Dogs’ we jump off with Matthew McConaughey’s podgy, sweaty almost-hero Kenny Wells telling his story to a hotel room full of FBI agents – a pretty good indicator that at some point in the next 120 minutes, the s*** really hits the fan.
What follows is a Wolf of Wall St-style tale of Wells, a down on his luck prospector, selling his girlfriend’s watch to fund a last-ditch attempt at striking it rich in Indonesia.
There he bumps into the enigmatic and mysterious Micke Acosta, who reluctantly agrees to take his last pennies to search for the elusive ‘Ring of Fire’ in the beautiful but dangerous jungle (“Don’t worry – they don’t do it much more” says Acosta, about the headhunter tribe they encounter)
Just when you think it’s over, strike it rich they most certainly do.
Sitting on possible the biggest precious find in decades, it isn’t long before investors and competitors start sniffing around causing all sorts of problems.
In hindsight these hostile takeovers and gold-diggers are the least of Kenny’s worries, as all is far from well at the end of this particular yellow brick road.
It really wants to say something about capitalism and greed – but ends up being not a lot more than really enjoyable but instantly forgettable froth.
Bryce Dallas is criminally underused as the tearful girl back home and the plot doesn’t hold many surprises, but any film that uses Joy Division, The Pixies and Orange Juice to such marvellous musical effect is welcome to the church of Jamie East any day of the week.
Without Matthew McConaughey holding the thing together with another perfectly robust performance (no-one has looked this grotesquely sweaty and seedy since Christian Bale in American Hustle) and a good turn from Ramirez this would have been a pretty shonky comeback from the director who brought Traffic and Syriana to our screens – but thankfully for Gaghan, McConaughey has taken care of business once more.
Yes it glitters, but it isn’t gold, you fools.
★★★☆☆