FOOL'S GOLD (2008) ** I really like the idea of Donald Sutherland spending his salad years riding around on a boat. That seems right, he looks very healthy and happy, it looks like a lot of fun, just kind of calmly taking it all in. Now, I wouldn't want a boat that big: too many people required, having them all around would ruin much of the point for he, but he also likes to dress up and so on, so it works for him. Matthew McConaughey maybe doesn't have every nuance right (he' very clearly-and regularly, but occasionally forgets-trying to act dumber than he is), but he somehow does a great job doing something far more difficult: he catches the spiritual sensation of being King Beach Bum, that kind of listlessly blind rush towards destiny, that sense of faith one who no doubt has all-star guardian angels on his side but never ponders it, that sensational luck . I like Kate Hudson but I've never thought that she received her mother's charm in the fullest sense: in the earlier shots, particularly, though, she looks every bit the daughter of Goldie Hawn, and it may be fair to say that she takes her trade more seriously than Goldie did at the same age, albeit without quite as glorious results. In any event it's a fun, ridiculous, romance and adventure flick, spiced up a bit by the inclusion of a kinder but no brighter Paris Hilton type character (nice job Alexis Dziena), and it never tries to be anything that it's not.
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