Matthew McConaughey, Edward Ramirez and Bryce Dallas Howard star in "Gold" from 2016, based on the Bre-X gold mine scandal in Canada.
After his father dies and the fourth-generation prospecting business goes belly-up, Kenny Wells (McConaughey) does not want to give up on his dream of finding gold in them thar hills.
He approaches a well-known geologist, Michael Acosta (Ramirez) and talks him into partnering with him. Michael hasn't found gold either but thinks he knows where in Indonesia to look.
Wells manages to get a few investors and the two go to work, but without luck. It's looking like another failure, especially when the workers quit. Knowing they need fresh water in their community, Michael lures them back to work by providing purifying systems for them.
Wells contracts malaria and is out of it for weeks. But when he is well, he learns that Michael has found gold. Their subsequent success is enormous.
This is one of those pathetic stories we've seen and heard about a million times - Enron, Madoff, etc., etc., where no one questions anything because -- as Wells says at the end -- everyone is making too much money. This to me was one of the more outrageous stories. It's amazing to me that enormous corporations will buy into anything, no matter how stupid, if they think they can make a few dollars.
The film is entertaining, with McConaughey a vision with his shaved head, 45-pound weight gain and false teeth, giving a fine performance as a man who looks like a loser and kind of acts like one. Ramirez is subtle and underplayed, in good contrast to the bombastic Kenny.
Nice ending.
After his father dies and the fourth-generation prospecting business goes belly-up, Kenny Wells (McConaughey) does not want to give up on his dream of finding gold in them thar hills.
He approaches a well-known geologist, Michael Acosta (Ramirez) and talks him into partnering with him. Michael hasn't found gold either but thinks he knows where in Indonesia to look.
Wells manages to get a few investors and the two go to work, but without luck. It's looking like another failure, especially when the workers quit. Knowing they need fresh water in their community, Michael lures them back to work by providing purifying systems for them.
Wells contracts malaria and is out of it for weeks. But when he is well, he learns that Michael has found gold. Their subsequent success is enormous.
This is one of those pathetic stories we've seen and heard about a million times - Enron, Madoff, etc., etc., where no one questions anything because -- as Wells says at the end -- everyone is making too much money. This to me was one of the more outrageous stories. It's amazing to me that enormous corporations will buy into anything, no matter how stupid, if they think they can make a few dollars.
The film is entertaining, with McConaughey a vision with his shaved head, 45-pound weight gain and false teeth, giving a fine performance as a man who looks like a loser and kind of acts like one. Ramirez is subtle and underplayed, in good contrast to the bombastic Kenny.
Nice ending.