Gold

Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Bryce Dallas Howard, Edgar Ramirez, Toby Kebbell, Corey Stoll, Stacy Keach, Craig T Nelson, Timothy Simons, Bruce Greenwood

Director: Stephen Gaghan

True-ish yarn of a mining investor, Kenny Wells (McConaughey), whose company in the 1980s is floundering. Tonsorially challenged, eyes gleaming, teeth bared and Texas accent to the fore, McConaughey's Kenny seeks some sort of salvation in the form of Michael Acosta (Ramirez), a mining engineer who believes he can strike gold in the jungles of Indonesia,

Getting together a group of fellow investors led by Coleman (Keach), Kenny raises a quarter of a million dollars for Acosta's expedition to get under way.

Once in Indonesia (locations were actually shot in Thailand), Kenny suffers downpours (it's the rainy season), a workers' walkout and a bout of malaria that Acosta nurses him through.

With the money running low, Acosta tells a recovering Kenny that gold has been found. Back in New York, Kenny is able to confound the doubters, float his company and see its shares soar. Offered $300,000,000 by a predator, Kenny refuses: it may be a costly mistake. But there are more twists and turns to come in this extraordinary story.

McConaughey gives his performance the full voltage and other characters - Keach aside - seem bland by comparison, as he keeps things moving by the ever garrulous intensity of his portrayal of a born survivor.

David Quinlan

USA 2016. UK Distributor: StudioCanal. Technicolor.
118 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 1, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 3.

Review date: 28 Jan 2017