Matthew McConaughey rode the tiger (yet again) in the under-titled Gold, the truthy tale of a hard-living, third-gen miner who never ever gives up hope. This Weinstein Company release revels in peeping at the rise, fall, rise and fall of a quasi-rapacious capitalist kook. From the Left, revenge is a dish best served gold.
It’s a wild ride that’s fully engrossing, not least because of McConaughey’s mesmeric turn as a legacy mining entrepreneur who’s less chip-off-the-old-block than flake-off-the-overextended-chip. He’s a functional alcoholic, a heavy alcoholic, but that hardly slows him down. Yep, quintessential McConaughey.
Matthew McConaughey plays a classic Matthew McConaughey role as a reckless and indefatigable entrepreneur. Nic Cage must not’ve been available, or for that matter Christian Bale, as the role required McConaughey to appear paunchy and balding, rather like Bale in America Hustle.
His supporting cast is more 14-carat than pure gold, but there are several shiny nuggets.
Gold is a classic Weinstein film, even with only one starlet role. The Left loves rapacious capitalists.
Musically, the Talking Heads cover is especially well chosen, being an Eighties & Nineties period piece.
SPOILER ALERT: The breathtaking Bre-X Mining Fraud gets revivified in Gold, an undertitled gem of a Mathew McConaughey movie. McConaughey’s character is based on Bre-X CEO David Walsh.