All That Glitters: Review of Gold

Gold

Director: Stephan Gaghan

By Alex Watson

Although it yearns to be this year's The Wolf of Wall Street, Stephen Gaghan cannot make Gold shine brightly. Matthew McConaughey's performance is very much what makes the film tick. Unfortunately, the movies relies a little too heavily on him for support. Years ago this might have been a thought provoking piece of cinema, nowadays it just feels like a run of the mill money drama.

Kenny Wells (Matthew McConaughey) is a prospector who is currently down to his last dime. Desperate to get rich, he flies to Indonesia on a whim where he meets mining legend Michael Acosta (Edgar Ramirez). Despite a tough start in the harsh jungle environment they miraculously strike Gold. As his name and wealth grows, Kenny soon becomes the focal point in a power struggle. With the feds also taking an interest will his luck hold out?

During the first act of Gold, you really get the impression that Kenny is the ultimate chancer. A boozed up and balding failure, Kenny attempts to keep his father company afloat selling speculative mining ventures using his outdated sales pitches. When he arrives in Indonesia the whole thing just feels like an exercise in futility. Although this sequence is key to setting up later events, Gaghan seems in a big rush to the important stuff. As the rain falls and Kenny struggles we never really get a good sense of precisely what is happening? When the big moment hits we merely shrug and say 'OK' to whatever is happening.

On the surface, Gaghan was the perfect choice to helm this project after directing Syriana and winning an Oscar for writing Traffic. Sadly he seems more interested in basking in McConaughey's glow that giving an insight into a intriguing industry. The later events feel like more like a formulaic rise and fall than a commentary on today's American market. While Kenny is raking in the dough and satisfying his nagging girlfriend (a thankless role for Bryce Dallas Howard), he also shows signs of greed (shock horror!). Big investors like Corey Stoll's Brian Woolf and Bruce Greenwood's Gold King Mark Hancock circle his fortune like a gull. His pride and refusal to allow his name to lose credibility are what will orchestrate his downfall.

The relationship between Kenny and Michael is integral to the success of Gold but yet Gaghan invests so little in it. Coming across as the wise and hard-working friends you would kill for, Michaels intentions are always a mystery.  Dipping in and out of proceedings his presences is missed whenever he is absent. Part of the issues of the story is that Gaghan seems to assume his audience is clued up on movies such as The Big Short. As a result, he dives headfirst into this story without giving us a chance to catch up. Although this tale of riches does have its moments, its lack of real drama and dilemma gives it a rather hollow feel. It feels like a movie made as a hail mary Oscar effort by its studio.

As mentioned Matthew McConaughey once more does his star credibility no harm and his efforts are sorely wasted. Injecting life into what is essentially a dull drama, McConaughey's Kenny Wells feels like a distant relation to Dallas Buyers Club's Ron Woodruff. Permanently sweaty and sauced up, Kenny Wells is the type of business man you move away from at parties. Edgar Ramirez also matches MM with a smartly downplayed turn. Michael Acosta is most definitely the smartest man in the room and knows it, he has nothing to prove and mend the fences Kenny breaks. Sadly Ramirez's performance hasn't nearly been the credit it deserves. One of the better supporting actors one day Oscar will take notice.

It feels surprising that Gold has been such a misfire when the hands making it were so skilled. It just proves that movies about wealth are not always a sure fire hit.

Derailed: Review of The Girl On The Train

The Girl On The Train

Director: Tate Taylor

By Alex Watson

Book adaptations often divide fan opinions, but in the case of Tate Taylor's adaptation of Paula Hawkins popular thriller The Girl On The Train, the cries of anguish have been loud. Many fans were upset by the unnecessary changing of the story from London to New York and by the casting of Emily Blunt who was deemed 'too beautiful' for the role by Hawkins herself. While it may not be a complete disaster, this movie drops well short of the expectations and what could have been a well-crafted thrill ride turns into a ride to nowhere.

Rachel Watson (Emily Blunt) is an alcoholic divorcee who still pines for her former life with ex-husband Tom (Justin Theroux). Taking the same train every day, she sees him playing happy family with the woman he left her for Anna (Rebecca Ferguson). On the same train, she observes the couple next door Scott (Luke Evans) and Megan (Haley Bennett) who to Rachel seem to like the perfect couple. When Megan goes missing and is presumed dead, Rachel takes it upon herself to find out what happened. By involving herself in her old world and invading other people's lives a dangerous path follows.

While the moving of location to New York might be one of the stronger points of The Girl On The Train it lacks the needed tension that book gave in buckets. The early train rides past her old neighborhood in upstate New York are breathtaking. We feel the pain as the train stops and forces her to gaze upon her husband living in their old house with the woman who ruined things.  Another plus point is how Tate Taylor with brutal honesty demonstrates the effects of Rachel's alcoholism and how her misery has compiled from her self-loathing. Bitter about her divorce and unable to shake the past she is lost in a sea of despair and her constant appearances have caused friction. After waking from one particularly disturbing blackout, she is shaken to the core.

The skewed narrative does well to show Rachel as an unreliable narrator and its non-linear structure makes us second guess frequently. Permanently sozzled, we often wonder if Rachel is hiding something as she can never seem to remember anything "I'm not the girl I used to be" she denotes frequently. Investigating officer Detective Riley (Allison Janney) suspects she knows more but Rachel is unable to trace her steps. Megan and Scott represent everything she yearns for, but as events inform us all is not as it appears. While it is key to the plot, Megan's story feels undercooked and doesn't quite draw us in. Haley Bennett looks the part of the devoted wife, but she fails to really engage. Her supposedly volatile relationship with Scott is never properly explored and her sessions with the mysterious Dr. Kamal Abdic (Edgar Ramirez) fill more like fillers than actual plot devices.

Key to the fans frustration in The Girl On The Train is Erin Cressida Wilson's script, what starts as promising stuff soon ruins itself with its insistence on too many twists, the majority of which feel predictable and it lacks the suspense of the novel. The final act which was soon shocking on paper just feels bland and near laughable. Taylor tries to dress things up well, but his talented cast cannot bring this to fruition. The cinematography of Charlotte Bruus Christensen is the real star of the piece as through her gliding shots she draws the audience into the heart of things. She firmly captures the continual insomnia of Megan and Anna's restlessness with her perfect home life. One notable exception is watching Rachel waking up to more than a hangover in her room, through Christensen she wakes up to pools of vomit, blood, and a nasty head wound. This one scene is the element that changes the tide.

What holds the film together is an outstanding star turn by Emily Blunt who is proving herself a capable actress across multiple forms. Blunt does more than just capture Rachel's continual drunkenness she absolutely nails her fragility and disillusion of how her once perfect life has gone south. In one amazing monolog, she ably demonstrates the characters self-destruction, hatred, and her desperation. Mesmerizing throughout, Blunt holds the audience sympathy but never crosses over into alienating them. She also gives Rachel a good air of hope and we hope she finds the redemption she so needs. Many criticized Blunt as miscast in this role, but it is impossible to think of the picture working without her.

The Girl On The Train will go down as a badly missed opportunity, it might be a pretty looking ride but its lack of story will have fanatics steaming at the ears.

Joy To The World: Review of Joy

Joy

Director: David O Russell

By Alex Watson

We are unlikely to see a more dysfunctional family than the Mangano's in 2016. Outside of Jennifer Lawrence's awards assured performance, Joy cannot find the spark it needs to ignite. This type of drama by David O Russell has an all too familiar feel to it and unlike his more recent acclaimed efforts, it fails to break new ground. The story of Joy Mangano is an uplifting one but has an undercooked taste and we never truly feel the pain and sacrifice of her journey.

Joy Mangano (Jennifer Lawrence) grew up wanting to be an inventor, but years later she is a divorced mother of two stuck in an unforgiving job and living in her crowded family home. Realizing that she needs to make her own life soon, Joy comes up with an invention that will revolutionize housework- a self-wringing mop.  With the market being difficult to crack into, Joy soon finds an unlikely ally in QVC channel executive Neil Walker (Bradley Cooper).

Joy is a movie that is about the determination of spirit and we see her as an imaginative child turned into a cuckolded young woman. Her family is the very description of problematic with her mother Terri (Virginia Madsen) glued to her soap opera's, her ex-husband Tony (Edgar Ramirez) still living in the basement and now her father Rudy (Robert De Niro) has been thrown out by his third wife. Her browbeating and squabbles with this lot feels too drawn out and after a point, it slows the story. Thankfully Russell shows some restraint and keeps the feud from boiling over. There are ventures into a rather bizarre and surreal avenue when Joy imagines her life being like one of her mother's tv shows. All this does, however, is diverted the movie from the path.

From the outset, Joy is a woman struggling to make her own way despite her obvious intelligence and business sense. There is a great story to be found about one of the really smarter innovators, shame is Russell doesn't know how to tell it. Her venture into the world of the home shopping channel is easily the picture's most entertaining. Neil Walker is a charming and encouraging presence and it is during this sequence that he helps inject some hope into affairs. Joy's natural charisma and likability are brought forward effortless during her infomercials. Though things are cringingly awkward and she looks unimpressive compared the better-dressed hosts, the against the clock feel works wonders. Desperate to sell over 50,000 units will her idea prevail?

Unlike the crucial middle segment, Joy is unable to recreate this feel as the movie's latter half deals with the struggles and threat of financial liquidation. Although the movie reaches its desired conclusion or interest has waned by this point. David O Russell has emerged as one of the finer directing talents of recent years, but this picture just doesn't feel like one that tests his ability. This man has a keen eye for the conflict within people and their families. The Mangano's have a love/hate relationship but it takes up too much of the movies prime focus which should be Joy's ascent to business glory.

Jennifer Lawrence is the movie's ace in the pack and through a controlled performance, she brings to life a woman clinging to a scrap of hope. Constantly put down but never beaten, Lawrence is the gutsy heart and soul of the character that continues to surprise. Likely to be a name among many awards lists, this woman is an actress who has already reached A-List status without breaking a sweat. Robert De Niro also deserves credit for a fine supporting turn as Joy's volatile father Rudy. Constantly sporting a look of disbelief, the man is a thorn in her side that can never be removed.

Joy is unlikely to gain much traction at awards shows but is worth seeing simply for the power of Jennifer Lawrence. Russell and co will be back before we know it and probably stronger for the experience.