Gold
08/02/17 Filed in: Cinema
We saw Gold yesterday. I had seen the trailer but knew nothing more about the story.
The reviews haven't been very complimentary, with Matthew McConaughey being credited with saving what could otherwise have been an even less memorable film. Unfortunately McConaughey's character, Kenny Wells, is not particularly likeable, so I guess that for some people this could take away from McConaughey's performance. Wells certainly didn't seem to deserve his long suffering girlfriend, Kay, played beautifully by Bryce Dallas Howard.
Personally, I didn't find it to be that bad. The story is, as they say, inspired by actual events, which usually means a fair amount of artistic licence. It is indeed based on a Canadian company, Bre-X, and the story stays true to actual events in that it involves a gold mine in Indonesia.
Sticking with the film plot, Wells's grandfather had travelled to Nevada and started a mineral prospecting business, which passed to Wells's father, and early in the film passes to Wells when his father dies. Years later a recession in the minerals' market leaves Wells almost broke and as one last throw of the dice he travels to see Michael Acosta, a prospector who developed a profitable copper mine in Indonesia, and who is lauded in the industry for the way he supposedly found the copper deposits based on his research into the 'ring of fire' geological feature of the region. Wells has a dream of there being gold in the area, which seems a tenuous basis to prospect, but he convinces Acosta and, somewhat inexplicably, persuades investors to back them.
The reviews haven't been very complimentary, with Matthew McConaughey being credited with saving what could otherwise have been an even less memorable film. Unfortunately McConaughey's character, Kenny Wells, is not particularly likeable, so I guess that for some people this could take away from McConaughey's performance. Wells certainly didn't seem to deserve his long suffering girlfriend, Kay, played beautifully by Bryce Dallas Howard.
Personally, I didn't find it to be that bad. The story is, as they say, inspired by actual events, which usually means a fair amount of artistic licence. It is indeed based on a Canadian company, Bre-X, and the story stays true to actual events in that it involves a gold mine in Indonesia.
Sticking with the film plot, Wells's grandfather had travelled to Nevada and started a mineral prospecting business, which passed to Wells's father, and early in the film passes to Wells when his father dies. Years later a recession in the minerals' market leaves Wells almost broke and as one last throw of the dice he travels to see Michael Acosta, a prospector who developed a profitable copper mine in Indonesia, and who is lauded in the industry for the way he supposedly found the copper deposits based on his research into the 'ring of fire' geological feature of the region. Wells has a dream of there being gold in the area, which seems a tenuous basis to prospect, but he convinces Acosta and, somewhat inexplicably, persuades investors to back them.
After weeks of taking core samples there is no gold, but after a serious episode of malaria Wells returns to full consciousness to be told by Acosta that they have struck gold. A whirlwind of events ensue, involving competing investors and dirty tricks, but Wells's hot-headedness leads to them passing over a $300m deal, and as a result they actually lose the rights to the mine. Their company value nosedives but a bit of smart double-dealing involving a local prince gets them back in the game, and once again they're on top, with a fortune in their grasp. As a result Wells is awarded the 'Golden Pickaxe', a sort of OSCAR in the mining fraternity.
But there's one last twist, and we finally find out why flash-forwards throughout the film show Wells being interviewed by FBI officers. The ending leaves you speculating as to what really happened to Acosta, who disappears and is presumed dead, and how Wells is going to fare after receiving an air mail from 'beyond the grave', wherein Acosta honours their original contract.
In real life things were more prosaic. Michael de Guzman (Acosta in the film) committed suicide and David Walsh (Wells in the film) died of a brain aneurysm in 1998, a year after their company was bankrupt.
But there's one last twist, and we finally find out why flash-forwards throughout the film show Wells being interviewed by FBI officers. The ending leaves you speculating as to what really happened to Acosta, who disappears and is presumed dead, and how Wells is going to fare after receiving an air mail from 'beyond the grave', wherein Acosta honours their original contract.
In real life things were more prosaic. Michael de Guzman (Acosta in the film) committed suicide and David Walsh (Wells in the film) died of a brain aneurysm in 1998, a year after their company was bankrupt.