Post by BIGFANBOY on Feb 8, 2008 6:55:33 GMT -5
FOOL'S GOLD
Review by Gary Dean Murray
Valentine’s Day always has romantic comedies as a major part of the cinematic mix. The holiday and the film genre seem made for each other. What would be better than taking your love to a darkened theater and watch people much better looking than yourselves falling together in a backdrop that is both quixotic and whimsical. Such is the new film Fool’s Gold, a little flick that is charming but doesn’t break any kind of new ground.
Matthew plays the boyish Finn (aka Huckleberry Finn?), a Key West treasure hunter who stumbles on a plate from a shipwreck in 1715. He knows that it is proof that a major find is just within his grasp. Unfortunately in one of the biggest laughs of the piece, the boat he owns (with his wife Tess) has sunk. Showing the plate to his financier rapper Bigg Bunny, he runs afoul of his benefactor. It seems that the rapper want to score all the gold from the shipwreck for his bottom line and not for the joy of discovery.
On the other side of the plot, Tess (Kate Hudson) has taken a job as a steward aboard a giant boat. She has two goals. She wants to divorce Finn and leave the islands. It seems that she came down on Spring Break seven years ago and got caught up in the treasure hunt with Finn. She is a historian and Finn seems to be the embodiment of the discovery of historical documents. They have been together in a love/hate relationship. Now she is hitting the wall about finding the shipwreck. All she wants is out.
Finn, realizing that he needs a new set of deep pockets, starts a plan to win over a publisher (Donald Sutherland) who is visiting the island. Can you guess who works as a steward on his boat? Finn captures the eye of the rich guy’s daughter Gemma (Alexis Dziena) a spoiled brat rich kid who wants everyone to notice her. All of these elements tie together to one focused goal—treasure hunt!
The rest of Fool’s Gold is putting together the pieces in order to find our treasure. Think National Treasure but without all the running. Along the way to the riches, Matthew gets beaten, blown up and shot through rock caves. He is as much our comic-foil as he is our hero. To be honest, he has done this type of bumbling good guy more than once. The same could be said of Kate Hudson. She is just playing it safe in a role that could have been done by half a dozen actresses. She is more ‘just there’ than performing, being a sounding board for Matthew.
The biggest surprise is tiny Alexis Dziena as Gemma. She takes what should have been a one-note role and turned in into a performance. She finds laughs and sympathies as the clueless little rich girl.
To sum it up in Valentine’s terms: This film has two very pretty women in very little clothes and Matthew going around shirtless, exposing his six pack abs. So it fulfills the sexy quota.
There are some amazing shots of Key beaches and all the surrounding scenery. The crew captures the beauty of the lower latitudes to the point of making it a character. They make treasuring hunting a grand adventure and not a dangerous occupation.
In so many ways Fool’s Gold reminded me of a film from decades ago—1930’s and 1940’s. The characters are all charming and the plot can be figured out within about ten minutes. Fool’s Gold is more of an enjoyable ride than a work of ‘cinema’ and on that level is does work. Call it a guilty pleasure.
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