Cinema Update

Review of Fool’s Gold

By Raymond Valinoti, Jr.

In my opinion, making Fool’s Gold was a waste of celluloid and watching it at the Clearview’s Beacon Hill Cinema 5 was a waste of time. This clinker exemplifies Murphy’s Law- just about everything that can go wrong with this film does go wrong.

Here, Matthew McConaughey plays treasure hunter Ben “Finn” Finnegan, stationed in the Florida Keys. He believes he’s found an important clue to the whereabouts of a lost treasure. This treasure is supposed to be a fortune in Spanish gold and jewelry that disappeared in 1715 when a hurricane destroyed the ship that was carrying the riches. Finn owes thousands of dollars to a ruthless gangster named Bigg Bunny (Kevin Hart) and this thug demands the lion’s share of the loot if it can be found. The imperiled treasure hunter finds a sponsor for his quest- a benevolent British billionaire Nigel Honeycutt (Donald Sutherland) who’s been enjoying a pleasure cruise in the Caribbean. Honeycutt has recently hired a steward for his yacht who happens to be Finn’s newly divorced wife Tess (Kate Hudson). Will Bigg find the treasure? Will he and Tess get back together? Will they foil Bigg Bunny’s scheme? The outcome is blatantly obvious.

Unfortunately, the scenario’s predictability is the least of Fool’s Gold’s problems. It’s supposed to be a rousing adventure, but Andy Tennant’s sluggish direction deprives the movie of any genuine excitement. Even more detrimental to the film are his abrupt shifts from violent suspense to broad slapstick to cloying sentimentality. These disparate styles are so arbitrarily handled that they never cohere into a whole movie.

Continuity errors and plot holes plague Fool’s Gold. For instance, in one scene Tess gets so mad when she sees Finn dining with Nigel and his daughter Gemma (Alexis Dziena), she hurls all the plates across the table. But not much later, the audience sees her sitting with Finn while she talks to Nigel. Ray Winestone plays Moe Fitch, who starts out in the movie fiercely competing with Finn to find the loot and then, inexplicably, teams up with him. The action, such as it is, grinds to a halt at one point as Finn ponderously explains the entire history of the Spanish treasure.

Most of the cast performs indifferently, as if fully aware the material is beneath them. McConaughey and Hudson, reunited after their box office success in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, look attractive but are trapped in poorly written roles. Various supporting actors struggle with absurd accents- Canadian Donald Sutherland as the British Nigel, Scottish Ewen Bremner as Finn’s Ukrainian sidekick, British Ray Winstone as Southern accented Fitch, and all-American Cosby Show alumnus Malcolm Jamal-Warner as Bunny’s Rastafarian henchman. Only Alexis Dziena, as Nigel’s flaky daughter Gemma shows real sparkle. Even when her dialogue is clunky, she enlivens it with a girlish elan. Maybe the filmmakers would’ve invested their time and resources better if they discarded the sorry plot and most of the characters of Fool’s Gold for an entirely different project with Dziena’s character as the star.

Raymond Valinoti, Jr. is a resident of Berkeley Heights, NJ. He has a Master’s in Library Science from Rutgers University and is a freelance researcher. His articles on film have been published in the magazines Midnight Marquee and Films of the Golden Age. He can be reached at rvalinoti@thealternativepress.com