Runtime: 2hr 1min
Director: Stephen Gaghan
Release Date: 3rd February 2017
Rating: 15 (UK), R (USA)
Matthew McConaughey reprises his role from The Wolf of Wall Street to present us with a repetitive storyline which doesn't make the most of its source material.
I kid, of course; Kenny Wells (McConaughey) is not actually the same character as Mark Hanna from The Wolf Of Wall Street. However, if you were to put the film side by side with Gold, then there would be many moments I would be unable to tell the difference; bar McConaughey's receding hairline in the more recent movie.
Gold has a plot loosely following a true story; two men who find a gold mine in Indonesia which was predicted to be the largest gold find of the decade. The sequential events involve big-time stockbroker involvement and multi-billion dollar investments into Kenny Wells' company following his discovery along with Michael Acosta (Edgar Ramirez). The plot doesn't offer much else, and has tendancies of being repetitive throughout the storyline.
The trouble with the adaptation of a true story into a movie is that films are not often representative of real life in many ways; directors are often tasked with a perplexing decision: stay as true as possible to the story or dramatise and exaggerate for the sake of the audience's enjoyment? Gold does not achieve an effective balance at all, in an attempt to remain as true as possible to the real life story of the Bre-X mining scandal (all bar a couple of scenes added in to create tension).
As a result, the movie shows an up-down-up-down relationship with the plot, unable to decide where the storyline is actually going to go, and while this is much like how reality operates, no one has a sublime story arc in real life - it does not make for a great film. The amount of times in the film that Kenny Wells is celebrating how rich he has become, then losing all of his money, then getting it back again only to lose it once more... you get my point.
It is a shame that this was the case because it seems like this role was practically written for McConaughey, he clearly relished his opportunity to perform as Wells, but his character does still lack originality. To mention it again, moments of the film where the company are celebrating the fact they've made a lot of money on the stock market floor and when
the main cast are calling up potential investors and essentially lying to them to obtain a greater investment, look basically ripped from The Wolf of Wall Street. Gold has a plot loosely following a true story; two men who find a gold mine in Indonesia which was predicted to be the largest gold find of the decade. The sequential events involve big-time stockbroker involvement and multi-billion dollar investments into Kenny Wells' company following his discovery along with Michael Acosta (Edgar Ramirez). The plot doesn't offer much else, and has tendancies of being repetitive throughout the storyline.
The trouble with the adaptation of a true story into a movie is that films are not often representative of real life in many ways; directors are often tasked with a perplexing decision: stay as true as possible to the story or dramatise and exaggerate for the sake of the audience's enjoyment? Gold does not achieve an effective balance at all, in an attempt to remain as true as possible to the real life story of the Bre-X mining scandal (all bar a couple of scenes added in to create tension).
As a result, the movie shows an up-down-up-down relationship with the plot, unable to decide where the storyline is actually going to go, and while this is much like how reality operates, no one has a sublime story arc in real life - it does not make for a great film. The amount of times in the film that Kenny Wells is celebrating how rich he has become, then losing all of his money, then getting it back again only to lose it once more... you get my point.
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Gold is not a bad movie - it is merely mediocre. When I find myself not caring about the characters during their times of need or desperation, they must not be written very well. In fact, most are completely forgettable other than the main two cast members. I can't particularly justify a reason to go and watch the film other than to kill time, it didn't have a great deal to offer.
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