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02/08/2017 11:01 PMRated R
Matthew McConaughey has reinvented himself many times for his characters, beginning with his breakout role as the guileless, young lawyer in A Time to Kill. After his lighter romantic comedies, he lost weight for Dallas Buyers Club to become the emaciated AIDS patient and activist Ron Woodroof. In Mud he appeared isolated, hunted, and raw. In his car commercials, he turns up the suave to the tipping point so that some laugh rather than accept him as all cool and manly.
In Gold, McConaughey blasts into high gear. For prospector Kenny Wells, the actor put on 40 pounds, allowed his stomach to balloon out, and cut off the top of his hair to swagger around, sweaty and greasy. He flings out his arms and hunches over when he yells in another’s face, and in spite of his crass words, sells his dreams and schemes anyway. What you see is what you get, with a solitary moment or two of reflection.
The dreamy-eyed, brash prospector might seem ludicrous at first, but adding his quiet, new partner, Michael Acosta, played by the wonderful Venezuelan actor, Edgar Ramírez (The Girl on the Train, Joy), helps McConaughey dig in (excuse the gold reference) to create an original, amiable character. Kenny—usually addressed by his first name, while Acosta uses Acosta—is noisy, optimistic, a heavy drinker, and somewhat vulnerable, in spite of his know-it-all demeanor. He convinces hardened business types to back him for gold prospecting in Indonesia. At a breaking point, trying to save his grandfather and father’s company, he puts everything into his plan.
Most of all, Kenny is a believer. He believes in his dream and in Acosta, who cares for him when he gets malaria, ties his tie before he receives the coveted prospector’s award, and steadies him during the ups and downs. Ramírez plays Acosta as calm and exceedingly healthy in the face of the mud and torrential rain of the jungle. He is a needed alternative to Kenny’s bravado, and tones down Gold when it might go off the rails.
Acosta also allows Kenny to be contemplative. When he asks Kenny about his bird tattoo, Kenny responds that it came from a poem he read as a kid. “...a bird with no feet...who sleeps on the wind...” Here is a rare moment, picked up again later when Kenny watches a bird flying overhead as another event in the rise and brutal falls of his life is about to happen.
Director Stephen Gaghan, known for his writing in Traffic and Syriana, allows his actors—and there are many character actors to manage in Gold—to run with their roles and be as noisy as McConaughey at times. The clutter, with rocking music in the background, pierces the more boring aspects of the film, such as the process of the deals, which could easily become tedious. Bryce Dallas Howard (The Help, Jurassic World), who plays Kenny’s love interest, Kay, provides a steadiness for him by not buying into the manipulations. Howard fits as the woman who doesn’t fit into the high stakes business world.
McConaughey and Ramírez carry the gold. They work together seamlessly so that Acosta allows Kenny to take all the attention he demands, and Kenny believes in him even when his faith is tested. McConaughey, sloppy and craggy, sweats and dreams his way to a admirable performance when he turns an adventure into a boisterous character study.
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