REVIEW: “Gold” strikes gold at the start of 2017

Much like the metal it’s named after, director Stephen Gaghan’s “Gold” is a rare kind of movie.

With a Golden Globe nomination and cinema’s golden boy Matthew McConaughey, this movie should have at least some relevance in these beginning months of 2017, but with a release date pushed so far, “Gold” seems to have slipped through the cracks.

The plot is based on the real-life Bre-X Minerals mining scandal of 1988, where Canadian businessman David Walsh and his associate, archaeologist Michael de Guzman, seem to have uncovered a real gold mine in the depths of Indonesia — though of course, names were changed and details embellished. Walsh’s film counterpart, Kenny Wells (McConaughey) is a sleazebag with a heart of gold, who all but loses his mining company at the start of the film.

After having a practically prophetic dream, Wells sets off to Indonesia to meet with mineral archeologist Michael Acosta (the film version of de Guzman, played by Edgar Ramírez), famous for having found the possible location of a gold mine known as the “Ring of Fire.” Going on a complete hunch to try to win his life back and, as the movie’s tagline says, “prove ’em all wrong,” Wells soon finds himself in the adventure of a lifetime.

The highlight of this movie is, of course, McConaughey, who has undergone a true metamorphosis to become Wells — a fake buck tooth, a balding head and a fake gut make him practically unrecognizable. His acting, of course, is what gives him away. McConaughey maintains that same weird, cryptic air he has for most of his roles (and even a little in real life), making Wells a strange mix between Willy Wonka and journalist Hunter S. Thompson.

Wells is delightfully sleazy, but not altogether a bad character. He cares for his wife Kay (Bryce Dallas Howard), genuinely believes in his best friend Acosta and overall just wants to do good by his father (Craig T. Nelson), the previous owner of Wells’ mining company, who passes the business onto Wells at the start of the film. Everything about McConaughey’s character makes you want to absolutely hate him, but his pure inner goodness almost – almost – makes you feel for him.

Above all, Wells’ most defining character trait is that he is the main driving force of the movie’s entire plot and pacing, so naturally, whenever the story shifts to someone else’s perspective, as it does later in the movie, the pacing almost slows to a grinding halt. With “Gold” clocking in at barely over two hours, this pacing issue could be a problem for some viewers, but if you were hooked by the premise in the first 15 minutes of the film, then you won’t mind the slight drag at the tail end of it.

A more legitimate gripe that viewers can have with “Gold” is it falls in the pseudo-genre called the “American Scammer” story — think “American Hustle,” “The Wolf of Wall Street” or even “Masterminds.” Yet the scam happens much too late, practically at the end of the film. Having a twist no one sees coming is a trope of the genre, sure. Yet in the case of “Gold,” it just seems like it came out of nowhere.

What’s most surprising about “Gold” is its photography and soundtrack, which are both unexpectedly good for a movie that had almost no publicity. Whether it’s the jungles of Indonesia or the fields of Reno, Nevada, the cinematography of “Gold” remains constantly breathtaking, taking full advantage of sweeping helicopter shots to show the grandness of the world around Wells’ operation. The soundtrack is similarly amazing, with its ‘80s-like songs perfectly setting the tone for this grandiose story. It’s worth noting that one of the songs on the soundtrack almost snagged the gold – the Golden Globe for Best Original Song, to be precise – titled ”Gold” by Danger Mouse and Iggy Pop, an eerie piece that works best for the later moments of the story.

All pacing issues aside, “Gold” is maybe one of the strongest movies this winter season, with a story that, although based on real events, diverges from them enough to become its own wild beast of an adventure/scam story. “Gold” may be one of the more overlooked movies this year, but it certainly isn’t fool’s gold in terms of quality.