Review: Gold BD + Screen Caps

THE MOVIE — 2.75/5

Plot Synopsis: Gold is the tale of one man’s pursuit of the American dream — to discover gold. Kenny Wells (MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY) is a prospector desperate for a lucky break teaming up with a similarly eager geologist, Michael Acosta (EDGAR RAMIREZ), and they set off on an amazing journey to find gold in the uncharted jungle of Indonesia. Getting the gold was hard, but keeping it would be even harder, sparking an adventure through the most powerful boardrooms of Wall Street.

Quick Hit Review (with some spoilers): This is a tale we’ve seen before countless times before (rise and fall and so forth) and while it is commendable for a nearly transformative performance from Matthew McConaughey, and the plot is at least somewhat interesting, for some reason it felt emotionally disconnected especially with the relationship between McConaughey’s Wells and Acosta as portrayed by Edgar Ramirez, who himself gives a half-decent performance. These two are pretty much the central characters, both very much flawed and yet by the end, I couldn’t muster much of a feeling for either one of them, and it’s not the fault of either of the actors.

The film does feature a respectable supporting cast from a rather brief appearance by Craig T. Nelson as Wells’s father, Bryce Dallas Howard as Wells’s headstrong but loyal girlfriend, Corey Stall playing an investment banker, and Bruce Greenwood as one Wells’s competitors. As with McConaughey and Ramirez, while they aren’t bad in their respective roles, they were letdown from its very average script.

Gold was directed by Stephen Gaghan best known for his Oscar-winning screenplay for Traffic, but his tenure as a director has been, to say the least, marred with the teen-thriller Abandon (which he also wrote), the mundane political-thriller Syriana and now this (he also had a couple made-for-TV movies in between). His direction here wasn’t bad showcasing some exotic locales (filming in Thailand in place of Indonesia), but the screenplay from Patrick Massett and John Zinman (various TV series from Friday Night Lights to The Blacklist) didn’t really measure up and distinguish it from other rags to riches and back to rags stories.

In the end, I didn’t feel Gold was a bad movie per se and certainly had some admirable moments, mainly from yet another brilliant performance from McConaughey, at the same time, it features an average script with some strange changes to the true story (US setting instead of Canada and time period, this taking place in the 1980s whereas the original was in the 1990s).

SPECIAL FEATURES – 2.25/5

This release comes with a title-embossed slip cover. Inside is a DVD Copy and a redemption code for the Digital HD copy.

Audio Commentary – Director Stephen Gaghan delivers a somewhat insightful track breaking down the story, casting and other tid-bits though I wish he had other participants to bounce stories off of.

Deleted Sequence (5:18; HD) – These are a series of scenes removed for whatever reason, though probably for pacing issues.

The Origins of Gold (4:37; HD) is a short behind-the-scenes featurette covering the how the film got made and includes interviews with Stephen Gaghan and the two writers.

The Location of Gold (4:20; HD) delves into the locales used in the film including Thailand taking place for Indonesia.

Matthew McConaughey as Kenny Wells (3:45; HD) looks at the Oscar winner on his character.

Previews – Lion, The Founder

VIDEO – 4.5/5

AUDIO – 4.5/5

OVERALL – 3.0/5

Overall, Gold was something of a missed opportunity. The story in itself was interesting while the theme presented by director Stephen Gaghan has a familiar feel that we’ve seen numerous times before. Even so, the performances by Matthew McConaughey and, to a lesser extent Edgar Ramirez, make it a worthwhile rental. The Blu-ray release offers up great video/audio transfers and a so-so bonus features.