Fool’s Gold

As fluffy and mindless as its promotional materials may have indicated, Fool’s Gold is an entertaining yet entirely forgettable caper comedy revolving around feuding couple Benjamin (Matthew McConaughey) and Tess’ (Kate Hudson) efforts at locating a centuries-old buried treasure. Director Andy Tennant, working from a screenplay co-written with John Claflin and Daniel Zelman, has infused Fool’s Gold with an appropriately lighthearted sensibility that’s certainly matched by the two stars, as McConaughey offers up a variation on his now-patented shirtless, aw-shucks good-guy persona. There’s little doubt, however, that the film’s incredibly mild success can be attributed primarily to the efforts of an enjoyably quirky supporting cast that includes Donald Sutherland, Kevin Hart, and Ray Winstone (!), with the latter effortlessly stealing every one of his scant few scenes. It’s only as Tennant dwells on the increasingly complicated mystery behind the treasure that one’s interest starts to wane, as, in addition to being, admittedly, kind of dull, such scenes feel as though they’ve been included only to pad out an already-overlong running time. Still, Fool’s Gold is ultimately just the sort of easy-on-the-eyes diversion that one does inexplicably crave from time to time.

**1/2 out of ****