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Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson don’t have much
chemistry in Fool’s Gold, but they sure look good.
Matthew
McConaughey’s chiseled, well-tanned torso. That’s about all
Fool’s Gold has to offer. Not plot, suspense, pacing
or even decent acting. Just a buff McConaughey looking hunky
and refusing to put on a shirt. If this is enough for you to
enjoy a movie, then by all means enjoy. If not, it’s
probably best to take the movie for what the title suggests
and stay away.
McConaughey plays Ben “Finn” Finnegan, a treasure hunter
who’s so enamored with a clue he finds at the bottom of the
ocean that he doesn’t notice his boat sinking behind him. In
the first 15 minutes, he’s nearly killed by two thugs (Brian
Hooks and Malcolm Jamal-Warner) who work for the hip-hop
mogul (Kevin Hart) to whom he’s indebted. He escapes and
just barely makes it to City Hall in time to finalize his
divorce with Tess (Kate Hudson, who does not wear revealing
attire), though he insists he has no idea why she’s leaving
him.
The aforementioned clue hints to the whereabouts of a lost
Spanish treasure known as the Queen’s Dowry, which is
rumored to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. A
treasure hunt ensues, with Tess and Finn reunited and aided
by a millionaire named Nigel Honeycutt (Donald Sutherland)
and his Hilton-esque daughter, Gemma (Alexis Dziena), while
Finn’s mentor/rival (Ray Winstone) also learns of and
searches for the treasure.
The story may sound action-packed, but the languid pacing
makes it anything but. It’s a droll, not-that-funny and
not-that-exciting 113 minutes that should have been cut to a
breezy 95 or so, which would’ve kept things light, moving
and fun. Writer/director Andy Tennant (Hitch) has
never worked with this type of material before, and his
inexperience shows.
The script by Tennant, John Claflin and Daniel Zelman
doesn’t help. It’s never clear whether this is a comedy,
treasure action-adventure or something else, and it fails on
all accounts. This is important because at some point a
movie needs to decide how it’s going to treat its subject
matter, which will allow the director to find the
appropriate tone. Tennant never answers that question, and
as a result the movie just meanders along, boring, bland and
listless.
McConaughey and Hudson shared an affable chemistry in How
to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003), but there’s no spark
here.
Hudson
looks especially confused, unsure of whether to play the
scenes for laughs or take things seriously. She always has
screen presence, but it’s rendered moot by McConaughey’s
excessive charm, which is both tiresome and occasionally
inappropriate considering some of the trouble Finn finds
himself in.
But at least he and the movie look gorgeous. Although the
story takes place in the
Caribbean
near
Key West, the production was shot in
Queensland,
Australia, to avoid hurricane season. The luscious scenery
is almost enough to fully occupy our attention while the
staid monotony of the story slowly plays out.
And there you have it: For a movie that features treasure,
escapes, fights and romance, the best that can be said is
that it looks pretty.
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