Gold

This review is going to venture into spoiler territory. I really tried not to, but a lot of Matthew McConaughey's good acting comes into play about ten minutes from the end of the film.

Matthew McConaughey has had a good run over the last five years. He has successfully rebranded himself as a serious actor who is able to handle fare that is outside the surf-rom-com flicks that made him famous. Because of this turnaround, I think that there is a lot of unwarranted pressure for every performance he gives to be bigger and better than the last. While the performance in Gold isn't his best, the character he plays is very captivating and surprisingly original (only partly original, but I'll get to that).

Kenny Wells (McConaughey) is an unlucky businessman whose family has been in the prospecting business for four generations. After his family business fails, he finds himself working out of a small bar in Reno, Nevada, trying to get backers on potential mining claims with little to no assurance that the sites he has chosen have any real mineral deposits. One night, he has a drunken dream about a geologist he once met and a potential claim in Indonesia. Pawning all the gold he has, Wells hopes on a plane to Indonesia to hunt down Michael Acosta (Édgar Ramírez), the geologist from his dream. Together they journey into the jungles of Borneo and and stumble across the biggest gold find of the decade.

It really made me happy that Gold was pretty original. While it is based on an actual tale that happened in Indonesia in the early 90s, only key elements are really taken from that and even then things have been changed. The first half of the movie is definitely the strongest part. It is a fun jungle adventure with hints of Apocalypse Now, Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park. It is as if director plucked the essence of the jungle scenes that appear in those movies and used it to lay a familiar setting that we can feel comfortable with. The other good part comes at the end of the film, where it turns out that there was no gold claim at all and Acosta just faked the fact that there was a deposit where he said there was. He did this through a con called salting (it's pretty cool). Not only is this twist and the end of the film pretty awesome (the whole time we're assured that there is gold), but McConaughey is amazing as a man who has just been betrayed by someone who he thought was his best friend. The movie starts out with what we think is narration by Wells, but we learn at the end is actually an FBI interview to see if he is guilty of fraud.

Gold really struggles during the middle and lead up to the twist reveal. It switches from not quite adventure movie to slow business drama. There's a lot of talking about who to sell the gold to and people taking advantage of Wells. It becomes really quite boring. There is an imitation of The Wolf of Wall Street as we see Wells claw his way back to the top, but we've seen that in countless movies before and since then and this doesn't add anything new. There are countless supporting characters who get lost in the mix and it's quite disappointing considering the fact that they are played by well known actors like Stacy Keach and Corey Stoll. These actors are wasted talents in this movie, especially Bruce Greenwood, who at least tries to stick out with a decent South African accent, but is hampered by having only three scenes in the movie. I will praise Toby Kebbell however, for his tiny role as the sympathetic FBI agent.

While Gold has some good elements, it focuses on all the boring parts of the story. The relationship between Wells and Acosta gets buried by focusing too much on the business side of things, which while helpful in setting up the twist, is a tiring time to get through. Stellar performances from the three leads (McConaughey, Howard, Ramírez) are cancelled out by the many mediocre ones.

The Captive

Atom Egoyan's latest film The Captive, takes a while to find its ground. The first twenty or so minutes are preoccupied with establishing the different time periods that dominate the film. But once the general plot becomes clear, it proves to be a relatively interesting, if not entirely captivating thriller.

Matthew (Ryan Reynolds) is a landscaper who has a young daughter, accomplished skater, Cass (Peyton Kennedy), with Tina (Mireille Enos). One day, when Matthew goes to buy a pie, Cass is kidnapped by Mika (Kevin Durand), a creepy presumed paedophile. Jump forward six years and Matthew and a small team of detectives are still searching for Cass. Mika has lost interest in her, but he uses her to lure other children, whilst in favour, allowing her to watch her parents through a surveillance system.

The Captive is in some ways, quite similar to Egoyan's previous film Devils Knot. The bleak imagery and slow camera movements both raise the tension and create a powerful, dismal setting. The plots both hold similar themes, with the disappearance of children, however The Captive proves more challenging with its paedophilic nature. At times it is quite difficult tocwatch, but unfortunately, towards the end it reverts more to a generic thriller, rather than pushing the envelope and grapple with the issues that it uses to frame the story.

Ryan Reynolds is fine as Matthew, although he spends most of the movie frustrated and confused. Mireille Enos is strong in some scenes, but does tend to overreact. The most powerful performance comes from Kevin Durand, who is bone-chilling and down-right creepy as Mika. The supporting characters generally don't bring much to the film, although Peyton Kennedy is quite good as the young Cass.

The Captive has a decent cast and some challenging themes, but unfortunately it fails to address those themes and simply becomes a typical thriller.

The Place Beyond The Pines

One of the first descriptions I read of this movie said that it was a multi-generational saga. And boy, you better believe it's a saga. But at no stage during the 158 minute running time did I want it to stop. Also, Ryan Gosling.

The Place Beyond The Pines has three consecutive stories that all affect each other and, more importantly, the characters within them. The first story follows Luke Glanton (Ryan Gosling), a stunt rider in a traveling carnival (so basically he's a carnie), who finds out that he has a son from a fling that he had with Romina (Eva Mendes). Because he doesn't want his son to turn out like he did (with an absent father), he promises to provide for him. But Romina has moved on, with a new man in her life, Kofi (Mahershala Ali). Luke still wants to provide for his son, so he starts to rob banks with the help of his friend, Robin (Ben Mendelsohn). This life soon takes a heavy toll on him.

The second story follows Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper), a young hero cop who becomes involved in police corruption. He turns to his father, a former judge, for advice. His father tells him that the best course of action would be to take down the corrupt officers, which include Pete DeLuca (Ray Liotta). He turns them into the district attorney, Bill Killcullen (Bruce Greenwood). He also has an infant son with his wife (Rose Byrne).

The third story picks up fifteen years later. Both Luke's son, Jason (Dane DeHaan), and Avery's son, AJ (Emory Cohen), become friends in high school. It is only after Jason becomes aware of Avery's involvement in his father's death that things start to go off the rails.

This movie is fantastic. This is Derek Cianfrance's second film after Blue Valentine (which also starred Gosling). He has crafted an immense flowing storyline, that whilst doesn't explore every single possibility, is still coherent and easy to watch.

The film also looks amazing. It is set in upstate New York and some of the scenery is amazing. So too is the set design in the small town in which it is set.

In my review for Gangster Squad earlier this year, I said that Ryan Gosling works best when he's outside the Hollywood system. Whilst he's not in this movie for too long, his character resonates and you can see a little bit of him in his son. Because he has worked with Cianfrance previously, you can see that relationship come through. At first I thought his character was going to be similar to the Driver, but not at all. You can see that all Luke wants is what's best for his son.

The character who we see the most in this movie is Avery Cross, so that meant just a little bit too much Bradley Cooper for me to handle. When he's in a movie like the Hangover where he has other actors as a buffer, I find him more tolerable.

The women in this movie are also very strong. Mendes' Romina still shows feelings toward Luke, but ultimately knows what's best for her son. We don't see a lot of Rose Byrne, but when we do, you know that she is a stronger person than her husband.

I always feel good when I see Australians in American film, so to see Ben Mendelsohn in this movie made me feel good. Here, he plays an extremely toned down version of the character he played in Animal Kingdom, a man who has lived the life but is happy to settle down. Ray Liotta on the other hand, plays the greediest person alive. His character knows that because this is a small town, he can get away with his corruption.

Finally, Dane DeHaan is someone to watch out for. I recognised him from Chronicle and I hear he will be playing Harry Osborn in the new Spiderman movie. In this role, he has to carry a lot of emotional weight on his shoulders and he pulls it off perfectly.

Verdict: I'm not afraid to say that this film might have to compete with Django for my favourite movie of the year, because it really deserves it. And, of course, Ryan Gosling.