Solid gold Matthew is well worth the weight
GOLD (Cert 15; 121mins)
ALL that glitters is not necessarily valuable in Gold, a story that constantly beggars belief. It has so many twists and turns it doesn’t seem possible any of it could be true and yet it all happened.
Matthew McConaughey’s larger-than-life performance as hopeless dreamer Kenny Wells gives the film a clear focus as it sometimes struggles to encompass the sprawling complexity of a very tall tale.
Once again McConaughey has gone the extra mile to bring his character to life, gaining 45lb in weight and shedding some of his hair. His Kenny Wells is balding and sweaty with a beer belly and the habits of a man who is a heart attack waiting to happen.
Kenny is an executive in the family mining business and has an unshakable belief in the American Dream. He is such a smooth-talking salesman he has even convinced himself that anything is possible.
As Kenny’s family business fades away in the 1980s he dreams of finding gold in the jungles of Indonesia and starts to make it a reality with the help of maverick geologist Mike Acosta (Edgar Ramírez). Battling all the odds from appalling weather to a bout of malaria, Kenny and his new best friend prove all the doubters wrong and discover the largest gold strike of the decade.
Now everybody wants a share of his good fortune and he is suddenly the toast of the town, welcomed everywhere from the swankiest boardrooms to the New York Stock Exchange. His loyal girlfriend Kay (warmly played by Bryce Dallas Howard) is the realist to Kenny’s wild, impetuous dreamer and seems to be the only one willing to consider that their lucky streak may not last for ever.
Gold is more fun in the first hour when the dreams come true than when everything goes pear-shaped.
A great soundtrack from Orange Juice to Iggy Pop helps the action to fizz along but it feels as if veteran director Stephen Gaghan can’t quite squeeze everything in and there is a slightly disjointed feel to the film, especially when it jumps forward in time and Kenny is being interviewed by FBI special agent Paul Jennings (Toby Kebbell). You are forced to assume the worst long before you find out what transpired.
McConaughey is the one who keeps you interested in the story. His Kenny is not driven by money. Instead he is a slave to the
obsession that he can create his own luck and be remembered as a man of importance. It is the thrill of the chase that he savours.
At one point he turns down a deal because it would involve removing his name from the mining company. “You sell your dream, what do you have left?” he argues as he casually rejects a $300 million windfall.
A little more of that crazed confidence in the telling of the story and Gold could have been a 24-carat film.
LOVING (Cert 12A; 123mins)
RICHARD Loving (Joel Edgerton) and his beloved Mildred (Ruth Negga) didn’t want to change the world. They just wanted to get married and raise a family.
This was only 60 years ago but their humble dreams were shattered by an America that opposed the marriage of a white man and a black woman.
Loving tells the true story of their legal battles and role in the Civil Rights Movement with a restraint and tenderness that seems to match the central relationship.
Richard was honest, hardworking and law-abiding. Mildred was a decent, caring citizen. They married in Washington but returned to a Virginia that declared their union illegal and banned them from setting foot in their own backyard for 25 years. The film unfolds over a decade in which they are ultimately forced to take their case to the Supreme Court.
Loving is low-key in the way it lets the facts speak for themselves but both Joel Edgerton and Best Actress Oscar nominee Ruth Negga create convincing, deeply felt portraits of ordinary people swept away by extraordinary events.
Toni Erdmann (Cert 15; 162mins)
THE notion of a hilarious German comedy probably sounds like a contradiction in terms but Toni Erdmann is just the film to break down your prejudices.
This Oscar-nominated romp is pushing three hours but it is so full of surprises that it keeps you engaged all the way through. It works because of the wise, witty script, two fantastic central performances and the kind of father-daughter dynamic that speaks volumes about the pressures of modern life and the tensions in many a family.
Winfried (Peter Simonischek) is a music teacher who can’t resist a corny joke or an elaborate prank. He worries about his daughter Ines (Sandra Hüller), a high-powered business consultant who never seems to have any fun and he pays her a surprise visit in Bucharest where she seems to do nothing but work or worry about work.
He returns home downhearted but soon returns wearing false teeth, a terrible wig and a tacky suit and claiming to be Toni Erdmann, Ines’ CEO’s life coach. If Ines is resigned to a joyless existence, then Toni is prepared to try anything to rock her world. A slow-burning joy of a film that delivers dark, outrageous laughs and some genuinely touching moments.
TOWER (No cert; 96mins)
ON a boiling hot morning during the summer of 1966 a man ascended the clock tower at the University of Texas in Austin and started shooting at the students.
He killed 14 people and wounded dozens of others. The gripping documentary Tower offers a sense of what that day was like, capturing the chaos of an unfolding tragedy and the selfless acts of courage that punctuated the horror.
Director Keith Maitland’s highly imaginative approach deftly pieces together a mosaic of archive footage, eyewitness testimony from key survivors and beautifully animated dramatic reconstructions.
The use of animation sounds inappropriate but it manages to create an even more intimate connection with the stories of Claire Wilson, who was eight months pregnant when she was shot, and bookstore manager Allen Crum, who joined the police to tackle the sniper. An intense, incredibly emotional film.
RESIDENT EVIL: THE FINAL CHAPTER (Cert 15; 106mins)
ANYONE who has followed the zombie apocalypse saga over the past 15 years will consider the title of Resident Evil: The Final Chapter to be wishful thinking.
Once again Milla Jovovich stars as Alice, the seemingly indestructible commando who has been waging war on the zombie hordes for what seems like for ever.
Now she’s on a mission to the mean streets of Raccoon City to retrieve an antivirus and she is reunited with evil nemesis Dr Alexander Isaacs (Iain Glen). None of it makes much sense but fans will no doubt appreciate the breathless pace and frenetic storytelling of another slapdash sequel.