The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema & Tv
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
      • Shows
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureMovie reviews

Gold

Gold | Movie review
30 January 2017
Aidan Milan
Avatar
Aidan Milan
30 January 2017

Movie and show review

Aidan Milan

Gold

★★★★★

Release date

3rd February 2017

Certificate

UPG121518 title=

Links

TwitterFacebookWebsite

Take three parts The Wolf of Wall Street, one part Raiders of the Lost Ark, season with a dash of Jerry Maguire and voila! We get Gold. And if it sounds like these are three films that won’t mesh well together, it’s because, in fact, they don’t. Gold is a well-acted, well-shot, somewhat enjoyable and tonally confused piece, which, while allowing Matthew McConaughey to remind us all that he is capable of “serious” acting, is just “all right”.

The movie tells the story of a man who goes from rags to riches again and again through little more than dumb luck and a poor choice of friends. We follow Kenny Wells (McConaughey), a crass, down-on-his-luck prospector, who teams up with the allegedly brilliant geologist Michael Acosta (Édgar Ramírez) to find gold in the jungles of Indonesia.

The physical transformation McConaughey underwent to play the hard-drinking, pot-bellied protagonist is impossible to miss. However, while going to physical extremes might have paid off with an Oscar for his turn in Dallas Buyers Club, starring in fact-based films that allow him to change his BMI to become a character clearly cannot continue to be the foundation upon which the rest of his career is built.

Make no mistake, the cast of Gold do a great job with what they are given. Bryce Dallas Howard shines as Wells’s long-suffering girlfriend, Kay, even though she is underused, and McConaughey delivers a standout performance once again. The unflattering camera angles and unabashed long shots of him in the nude provide ample opportunity for the actor to show us what he’s made of. He truly embodies the complete disaster that is his character and is, at times, even delightful to watch. However, the film as a whole falls short because of a script that strives to do too much.

Trying to redeem the two largely irredeemable sleazeballs in the final act feels more like a Hail Mary pass than character development; especially considering that Wells does little to change or better himself as the plot progresses. Attempting to pass the protagonist’s lust for finding gold off as somehow different than a passion for earning money comes across as absurd. And the movie struggles to make the audience buy into the two love stories clumsily squished somewhere near the muddled centre of this story. The bromance feels forced, and key moments of tenderness between Kay and Wells are fuelled largely by the reckless greed and consumerism that the film is apparently attempting to caution us against. Not to mention the fact that the reason why Kay puts up with Wells at all is a mystery that will baffle viewers for years to come.

Ultimately, Gold accomplishes very little of what it apparently intends to. It’s ambitious in that sense but, following the likes of The Wolf of Wall Street and American Hustle, the whole thing comes across as derivative. 

★★★★★

Aidan Milan

Gold is released nationwide on 3rd February 2017.

Watch the trailer for Gold here:

Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.

YouTube privacy policy

If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.

Related Itemsreview

More in Movie reviews

Moxie

★★★★★
Emma Kiely
Read More

Notturno

★★★★★
Mersa Auda
Read More

The Winter Lake

★★★★★
Guy Lambert
Read More

Lucky

★★★★★
Jacob Kennedy
Read More

Justine

★★★★★
Abbie Grundy
Read More

Foster Boy

★★★★★
Jim Compton-Hall
Read More

Crazy About Her

★★★★★
Emma Kiely
Read More

Bigfoot Family

★★★★★
Mersa Auda
Read More

Judas and the Black Messiah

★★★★★
James Humphrey
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Movie and show review

Aidan Milan

Gold

★★★★★

Release date

3rd February 2017

Certificate

UPG121518 title=

Links

TwitterFacebookWebsite

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Detroit Stories – Alice Cooper
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Judas and the Black Messiah
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Laura Mvula – Under a Pink Moon
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • The Toll
    ★★★★★
    Film festivals
  • Black Bear
    ★★★★★
    Film festivals
  • Big vs Small
    ★★★★★
    Film festivals
  • No táxi do Jack (Jack’s Ride): An interview with director Susana Nobre
    Berlinale
  • I’m Your Man (Ich bin dein Mensch): An interview with stars Dan Stevens and Maren Eggert
    Berlinale
  • I’m Your Man: An interview with Maria Schrader and Jan Schomburg
    Berlinale
  • I’m Your Man (Ich bin dein Mensch) press conference
    Berlinale
  • Moxie
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Souad
    ★★★★★
    Berlinale
  • We (Nous)
    ★★★★★
    Berlinale
  • Bicep at Saatchi Gallery Online
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • The Winter Lake
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Toni Erdmann | Movie review
A Play in 24 Hours Phase Five at Theatre Utopia: From concept to performance in a day