SOME amazing true stories are just begging to be spun into big-screen gold while others are better read about on the Wikipedia page and nothing more. This pacey and energetic but weirdly uninvolving and erratic stock room drama/treasure-seeking adventure falls into the latter category.
In his second film in as many weeks (following animal-themed musical animation Sing), Matthew McConaughey stars as Kenny Wells, a doggedly determined gold mine prospector who with his receding hairline, misshapen teeth and protruding gut couldn’t get any more opposite to how we picture the actor if he tried.
With his family mining business financially on its knees, Kenny gets desperate and decides to make one last-ditch, last-dime effort to save what his grandfather built – he takes a massive gamble on a mining operation in Indonesia alongside an enigmatic geologist named Michael Acosta (Edgar Ramirez).
Before they know it their gamble has paid off; the gold and money starts flowing, they’re approached by the kind of Wall Street outfits that wouldn’t touch him with a barge pole before, and the cash-laden dream seems to have been achieved. But needless to say things don’t stay rosy for long as the validity of their gold mine comes into question.
The film is no doubt energised by McConaughey’s all-or-nothing performance, backing up the gimmicky is-that-really-him look with a captivating intensity that makes Kenny a compelling guy to be around, even when he’s making unendingly self-serving decisions at the expense of others, namely the love of his life Kay (Bryce Dallas Howard doing what she can with an underserved and underdeveloped supporting role). But even the charismatic leading man and some inventive direction by Stephen Gaghan (Syriana, writer of Traffic) can’t make a lacking, wildly uneven script by Patrick Massett and John Zinman (whose work ranges from the first Tomb Raider movie to the excellent TV series Friday Night Lights) into something wholly satisfying.
It’s a film that feels hopped up on sugar, never settling into a rhythm and unable to find an identity of its own; the boardroom meetings about stock options and excessive flaunting of wealth ring the Wolf of Wall Street bell but without the biting satire or wit. The Ocean’s Eleven-esque caper tone sits at odds with the moments the film tries to delve into the seriousness of its themes of unwavering ambition and its dangers. It’s another example of a film that never equals the performance that positively towers over it.
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