I do like movies that just fun and entertaining without being serious when they are done well. A few years ago, Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey made the fun, entertaining movie How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. I thought that Hudson and McConaughey worked well together, so I was interested when I learned that the two were making another movie together. I thought the trailer for Fool's Gold looked like it would be good.
Tess had spent the last several years hunting for a lost treasure with her husband Finn. She had finally had enough and was divorcing him so she could return to Chicago and finish her college education. Finn made a new find connected to the treasure he and Tess had been searching for which caused him to miss the divorce proceedings because of a problem with Bigg Bunny, the man who had financed Finn’s work.
Tess was working for Nigel Honeycutt, a millionaire, on his boat. Finn managed to get on the boat after an encounter with Nigel’s daughter Gemma. Tess wasn’t happy to see Finn, but she ended up helping him talk to Nigel about searching for the treasure. Nigel was interested and they made plans to start the search before discovering another group of treasure hunters, financed by Bigg Bunny, were searching in the same area.
There was a decent amount of things going on throughout Fool’s Gold without making the movie overly complicated. The relationship between Tess and Finn was rather complex and did add some conflict to what was going without detracting from the main focus of searching for the treasure. Nigel and Gemma’s relationship was a bit complicated as well and that subplot was a bit more serious than some of the other things going on. There were some more serious moments that did end up working fine without dragging down the overall pace or making things boring.
Fool’s Gold was focused in on the search for a lost treasure. Finn and Tess had spent years researching a specific ship, trying to figure out where it had sank almost 300 years before. When they talked to Nigel about financing the search, they did share a lot of the background information they had discovered. I thought the information was interesting and helped to make things more believable. Several scenes focused in on different aspects of the search for the treasure. I really enjoyed that aspect of the movie. I saw another movie focused on searching for treasure, Into the Blue, a few years ago that I didn’t care for. This movie handled the material better and made for a more entertaining, enjoyable movie overall.
Fool’s Gold was set in the Caribbean with many of the scenes taking place on the ocean and a few scenes taking place in Key West. There was a small island close to where Finn was targeting his search that was in many scenes. The name of the island was said, but I can’t remember what it was now and I don’t know if it is a real island or just one invented for the movie. The settings used were absolutely beautiful and did add to what was going on. The setting did provide a reason for several of the characters to walk around almost naked and show off a lot of skin. Finn was frequently shirtless and during one scene, his bare backside was briefly visible.
I felt that Fool’s Gold was a fun adventure type of movie. Finn seemed to keep ending up in dangerous situations while searching for the treasure. There were explosions, a few fights, some shooting, and even a few chases throughout the movie. Those things did help to keep things interesting and to keep things moving along at a good pace. A few of those scenes were a bit suspenseful and did keep me guessing about how a few situations would work out even though the movie was predictable overall. I didn’t think that the movie was that violent even though there was violence in some scenes. I thought that the adventure portion of the movie was done well.
The trailers that I saw for Fool’s Gold made it look like the movie would be extremely funny. I did think the movie was funny, but it wasn’t as funny as I had hoped it would be. I think the funniest parts were used in the trailers, something that is done very often now. There were other things that hadn’t been included in any of the trailers I saw that were funny. I just think the funniest things were used in the trailers. The movie could have been funnier overall, though I still thought it was funny enough to be entertaining. Most of the laughs were provided by things that Finn said or did, with some of those things being somewhat silly. The silliness didn’t bother me, but other viewers could feel differently. There were more serious moments than I had expected. Those moments did help to progress the few subplots without making the movie boring.
Tess and Finn had been married for several years before she decided she couldn’t live that way anymore and filed for divorce. Finn was never shy about letting her and anyone else around know that he still loved her and didn’t want to be divorced. As the movie progressed, it did become clear that she still had strong feelings for him that she was conflicted about. I did like how some of their history was shared since that helped to make the relationship more realistic. There were some sexual discussions and a few sexual situations without there being any actual sex scenes. The relationship was important without detracting from what was going on with the search for the treasure. The few sexual discussions and situations along with some language and violence caused the movie to be rated PG-13.
Finn was a fun loving guy who didn’t seem to take much of anything seriously. That had caused problems in his marriage with Tess. Finn could be irresponsible at times and he didn’t always fully think things through being acting which did get him into a lot of trouble. Just about the only thing he was serious about was searching for the treasure. I really liked Matthew McConaughey in the part. He does very well with romantic comedies even though he has also done well with more serious parts.
Tess had been drawn into searching for treasure after she got involved with Finn. She seemed to enjoy it as much as Finn even though she was more practical about it. Finn even said that she had been the brains. She was conflicted about several things, mostly her relationship with Finn. I loved Kate Hudson in the part. She does very well with romantic comedies as well, making her characters fun and believable. I also really enjoyed her performance in The Skeleton Key, a very different type of movie. I continued to see Hudson’s resemblance to her mother Goldie Hawn throughout the movie.
Nigel was the kind older man that Tess was working for. He had a strained relationship with his daughter and didn’t know how to deal with her much of the time. He kept trying to do the right thing, but was a bit clueless at times. Donald Sutherland handled the part really well. Gemma was Nigel’s flighty, air head daughter who kept asking dumb questions. Every once in a while she showed that she was smarter than she acted most of the time. She was kind of annoying at times, but she was still likable overall. Alexis Dziena was fine in the part.
Bigg Bunny was a rap star who owned the island and many businesses on it. He had been accused of murder previously but had gotten off. He had given Finn money to look for the treasure and he wasn’t a nice man to owe money too. He was very violent in his business dealings and didn’t mind using violence against people. Kevin Hart looked familiar to me, but I don’t think I’ve seen him in any other movies. Curtis and Cordell worked for Bigg Bunny. It seemed like they were his hired muscle. Malcolm-Jamal Warner and Brian Hooks handled the parts fine. Alfonz, a man who worked with Finn, turned up in a few scenes without that much to do. Moe, another local treasure hunter, also turned up a few times. He wasn’t around enough for Ray Winstone to have much to do.
I really enjoyed Fool’s Gold and think it is a fun, entertaining movie. It managed to successfully blend adventure, comedy, and romance. Fans of Hudson and McConaughey should check it out.
