A Waterlogged Plot: Scenery can't rescue Fool's Gold
I told you we'd be able to find something worthless on the bottom of the ocean.All that glitters may not be gold, but if you're
By Mike BookeyI told you we'd be able to find something worthless on the bottom of the ocean.All that glitters may not be gold, but if you're willing to check your brain at the door, you'll find a brief respite from winter in the new romantic/action comedy, Fool's Gold. Director Andy Tenant (Sweet Home Alabama) leads us on a treasure hunt set in the Florida Keys. (It was actually filmed in the Bahamas and Australia's Great Barrier Reef.) The result is a watery plot embedded in warmth-inducing scenery.
Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson team up again, after their hit, How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days, as the less-than-happily-married couple, Benjamin ("Finn") and Tess Finnegan. Finn's obsession with finding a legendary Spanish treasure, lost in the Caribbean since 1715, has stressed his relationship with his history-buff wife, the brainy Tess, to the point of divorce. When Finn finally happens upon a broken plate from the sunken ship, their search for the royal cache begins from the plush yacht owned by millionaire Nigel Honeycutt (Donald Sutherland, sporting an ascot and a charming English accent). The kindly Nigel and his ditzy daughter Gemma (Alexis Dziena) take little convincing as they decide to join the Finnegans' latest adventure. And the pair adds some needed texture to this otherwise soggy story.
McConaughey and Hudson don't appear poised for any acting awards here. (But if there were an Oscar for best male chest, McConaughey's-which in this film we see a lot of-would probably take the honors.) As the treasure-tracking Finnegans, the pair fail to revive their previous on-film chemistry. And, sodden with a thin-as-saltwater plot, the story is only semi-rescued by the performances of the yacht's two gay chefs (as they discuss Finn's various physical attributes), Nigel's comically naïve facial expressions, and a few truly funny one-liners. The real draw, though, remains the panoramic cinematography.
If you go, just prepare to suspend reality along with any thematic expectations, instead allowing yourself to be lapped up by warm Caribbean waves, and engulfed by an opaline sea. To escape mid-winter blues, (for two hours anyway) this might be your only chance to scuba with the stars and island hop from a gigantic white yacht .
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