Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.
GOLD – no relation
to the Roger Moore adventure vehicle of the same title from 1974, or even the
borderline-science-fiction German epic of 1934 (whose climax of titanic
explosions got re-used as stock footage by numerous Hollywood B-movies) - made its
premiere late in 2016, apparently with the faint hope the Bob/Harv Weinstein
production would be deemed Oscar worthy.
But it earned no
nominations for that kind of gold whatsoever (funny, the Roger Moore GOLD did
get an Oscar nod for the Elmer Bernstein/Don Black music; check out the
forgotten score online), and the feature directed by Stephen Gaghan, rather
quietly made its way into most theaters in early 2017.
I caught it on a
pure whim and was rather surprised how much I liked it. Even with a Matthew
McConaughey star-turn heavy on the scenery-chewing, it still felt like a picture
actually made for grownups, a little bit more than most. Then again, so would
the Roger Moore or the German one, in these lamentable times.
The plot is said
to “inspired by true events” – yeah, that old carny come-on – one is surprised
that ROGUE ONE didn’t make the same boast - but I do believe GOLD derives from
an actual case that involved a Canadian company. McConaughey, laying on the
McConaugheyisms really thick to match a paunchy waistline, plays Kenny Wells, hucksterish businessman
carrying on his father’s Reno-based mineral-prospecting company, that has never
made it out of the boiler-room leagues. In fact, by the 1980s the
company is almost nonexistent, running principally out of a Nevada bar and the
home of Wells’ long-suffering waitress-lover (a marginalized Bryce Dallas Howard).
