Gold | Film review - Matthew McConaughey goes for broke

(Image credit: Patrick Brown)

It was never about the money.

Playing a flabby, balding gold prospector, Matthew McConaughey tests his screen charisma to the limit in Gold, a satirical adventure set in the late-1980s and loosely inspired by real events.

His character, failed Nevada entrepreneur Kenny Wells, heads to the jungles of Indonesia, looking for the big strike that will turn his fortunes around. With Edgar Ramírez’s rugged geologist by his side, he hits the jackpot. But is he smart and sharp enough to keep his fortune out of the hands of Wall Street’s cutthroat bankers?

As the plot twists and turns this way and that, McConaughey throws himself into his role with go for broke gusto, but it is Bryce Dallas Howard as Kenny’s long-suffering girlfriend who gives the movie its heart.

Certificate 15. Runtime 121 mins. Director Stephen Gaghan

Gold available on Blu-ray, DVD & Digital Download from 5 June.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaZ3fOuVuF4

A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.