I actually had hope for this film. Of course, it looks awful when you see the trailer, but it is a treasure hunt and both Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson are extremely likable actors. I enjoyed How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, and while I never thought Fool’s Gold would be anything more than average I really didn’t expect it to be downright awful, but sometimes we don’t get what we expect, even if we set the bar as low as it can go.
If you choose to subject yourself to this mess, as I expect many will regardless of reviews, you will actually notice that it didn’t have to be as bad as it is. As a matter of fact it could have been quite good had director Andy Tennant (Hitch) decided not to go to the same comedic well over and over again.
The story centers on the dysfunctional marriage between Finn (McConaughey) and Tess (Hudson). Finn is a treasure hunter, a “career” he once enjoyed with Tess until she felt she was wasting her life with him and decided to become a stewardess aboard a yacht owned by billionaire Nigel Honeycutt played by Donald Sutherland and his miserable attempt at a British accent.
We first see Tess and Finn together at their divorce proceedings and only after things are finalized does Finn tell Tess he has found a major clue to the major treasure the two have been hunting all their lives. Unfortunately he is without his proof as his backer, rapper BigBunny (because rapper names are funny), has confiscated it and tried to kill him (because killing people is funny).
So, she doesn’t believe him, hits him in the head with a cane (because domestic violence is funny) and heads back to her rewarding job as a stewardess. Through a coincidental twist of fate that you would never see coming Finn decides to ask Honeycutt to back his hunt for the treasure uniting the two once again and the hunt is on.
I tell yah, that is only about one-third of the plot and all the twists and turns it takes. Encapsulating the storyline of this film into a short and coherent space is absolutely impossible. It is convoluted and results in a romantic-comedy treasure hunt that lasts over two hours and feels more like three as jokes and scenes are repeated time and time again.
McConaughey has a few moments of quality comedy, I did chuckle a couple of times and you can see if they cut out several of the side plots how this could have been a good film. The storyline between Honeycutt and his daughter never needed to exist. The gay chefs were added fluff. And the entire plotline involving BigBunny and his entourage, which included a very heavy Theo from the “Cosby Show” was just about as convoluted and insulting as it could have been. Just wait until the black guys need to call in the white guy for help and a blatant example of the Brother Rule is used. You can only laugh at its absurdity.
Fool’s Gold is a mess from the beginning and it never gets better. You may get a couple of laughs, but your money is worth much more than that.
