If eye candy is your delight, “Fool’s Gold” is your movie, but expect little more than that. This new romantic comedy starring the half-naked duo of Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson leaves audiences wondering who the real fool is. Is it McConaughey? Hudson? Nope … it’s you.
After their more appealing romantic comedy “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,” McConaughey and Hudson team up again in a seemingly endless search for gold.
McConaughey is Ben “Finn” Finnegan, the broke beach bum living the life of an unsuccessful treasure hunter, and Hudson is Tess Finnegan, the semi-studious blonde bombshell trying to get her life back together after her emotionally and financially draining marriage. The two find themselves reunited in their seemingly never-ending pursuit for the 18th century Queen’s Dowry.
Reconciling in the tropical islands of Key West to finalize their divorce, a barefoot, bruised and broke Finn presents Tess with his latest finding, a clue that could lead them to the treasure they were hunting years ago.
However, Tess, looking to put her mistake of a marriage behind her, resists Finn’s proposal and returns to her most recent job as a stewardess aboard the yacht of billionaire Nigel Honeycutt, played by the overqualified Donald Sutherland.
With gold on his mind, Finn swindles his way aboard the yacht through his unrealistic but nonetheless gallant efforts to save the precious hat of Sutherland’s obnoxious and spoiled daughter Gemma, played by Alexis Dziena. Sure enough, Finn makes it aboard the yacht, to Tess’s shock and distress.
After an overly detailed description of the step-by-step history behind the Queen’s Dowry, Honeycutt, looking to win the love of his short-attention-spanned daughter, agrees to fund Finn and Tess’s hunt.
However, Finn, it seems, has made more foes than friends over the years and soon finds himself fighting fellow treasure hunter Moe Fitch, played by Ray Winstone, and running from stereotypical rapper Bigg Bunny (played by Kevin Hart), to whom he is indebted, and who coincidentally owns the very island on which the dowry may lie.
Though McConaughey and Hudson may be easy on the eyes, the writing is painful to the ear as laughter comes few and forced between the overused jokes about Finn’s expertise in the sack and the numerous scenes of him overcoming ridiculous near-death experiences (guess those hours at the gym paid off).
Though a successful duo in their previous film together, it appears that McConaughey and Hudson fail at their second feature film attempt. For despite the hours of treasure troving and gold digging, this film is more appropriately characterized as lackluster.
If one is seeking a romantic comedy, “Fool’s Gold” offers little of either adjective. One-hundred-and-thirteen minutes with shirtless McConaughey and bikinied Hudson could be worse spent, but you’d need a treasure map to find such an activity.
– Heather Norton
E-mail Norton at hnorton@media.ucla.edu.