Whatever you call the wintry version of the “dog days of summer,” we know we’re deep into it when Matthew McConaughey arrives in multiplexes with his latest movie.
Is there any other actor so content to be the sunny jaunt audiences take to escape the cold? His shirt famously comes off. He grins and flashes his pearly whites. It pleases him to please us. He so often seems at peace with his inner goofball.
Of course, Mr. Just Keep Livin’ doesn’t come solo in the ever-so-slight romantic comedy “Fool’s Gold.” Kate Hudson plays sensible gal to McConaughey’s foolhardy fella, responsible adult to his feckless guy. Tess provides the brains to Finn’s treasure-hunting hunches. Too bad she’s breaking up the team.
**RATING | Romantic Comedy
Finn already has sunk a treasure salvage ship (his, hers or theirs is hotly debated) and been left for dead by bumbling thugs when his soon-to-be- ex persuades her new boss to steer his yacht toward Key West for divorce proceedings.
In credit-score hell, thanks to her former mate, Tess has taken a job as steward on the luxury yacht of Nigel Honeycutt (Donald Sutherland) to make enough money to return to Chicago for her graduate degree.
Something about Finn pulled Tess away from that higher ambition. And each time she begins to tell folks, like the gay longtime couple who cook aboard the yacht, why the marriage ran aground, she finds herself hinting at what was so very right about Mr. Wrong. Even in this solidly PG-13 affair, it’s clear he knew how to map her treasures.
On the eve of their divorce, Finn finds a clue to a cache they worked years to uncover: the Queen’s Dowry.
Because “Fool’s Gold” waves its preposterous flag proudly, Finn and his ex wind up on the same yacht. She’s an employee. He’s trying to persuade Nigel and his too ditzy daughter, Gemma (Alexis Dziena), to sign on for the hunt.
Finn’s first patron, Bigg Bunny (Kevin Hart) is a gangsta rapper turned pure gangster who thinks he’s dead.
Directed by Andy Tennant, “Fool’s Gold” is meant to be as easy to down as the cocktails served at Club Med. If a warm Fuzzy Navel were a good thing, this would be it.
Sutherland does his part to anchor the material. His large, lidded eyes register the confusion and pain of a spoiler trying to connect to the spoiled child he helped create. Perhaps it’s contempt for Paris Hilton and Co. that led the filmmakers to make Gemma so spectacularly stupid.
Five years ago — almost to the day — the likable leads appeared in “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.” It remains Hudson’s best box-office showing to date, and McConaughey’s second-best.
To cynics, this reteaming suggests a studio panning for box-office ore. But the producers have it half right: There’s a certain charm to this duo.
Never heavy-handed, Hudson offers ballast to McConaughey’s forever-adolescent energy. He’s the dumb blond here — and the movie has fun with that. Yet, it’s easy to imagine their roles reversed in a future pairing.
What didn’t figure into the equation was fresh writing.
Written by Tennant, John Claflin and Daniel Zelman, “Fool’s Gold” is “National Treasure” without the history lessons. This despite the overly detailed lecture about the Queen’s Dowry that Finn and Tess give Nigel and Gemma.
It’s “Sahara” without the Clive Cussler edge or Steve Zahn. Ewen Bremner plays Finn’s Ukrainian sidekick. (It would have been half a star better just for having Zahn, but then nearly everything is.)
There are a few surprising touches. Hudson’s Tess provides one when she pointedly asks Gemma why she always plays dumb. It’s big-sibling stuff, and Tess and Finn take turns bringing Gemma along.
“Fool’s Gold” doesn’t mine Hudson and McConaughey’s possibilities fully.
At its best, the film is silly fun. And you can stick a little plastic umbrella in that.
Lisa Kennedy: 303-954-1567 or lkennedy@denverpost.com; also on blogs.denverpostcom/madmoviegoer
“Fool’s Gold”
PG-13 for action violence, some sexual material, brief nudity and language. 1 hour, 42 minutes. Directed by Andy Tennant. Written by John Claflin, Daniel Zelman and Tennant. Photography by Don Burgess. Starring Matthew McConaughey, Kate Hudson, Donald Sutherland, Alexis Dziena, Ewen Bremner, Ray Winstone, Kevin Hart, Malcom-Jamal Warner, Brian Hooks. Opens today at area theaters.
