‘Fools Gold’ a treasure
By Sami Shelton, News Editor
With February being the month of love, we are sure to see several romantic comedies make their way to the silver screen this season. “Fool’s Gold,” directed by Andy Tennant, is one chick-flick that you may actually be able to get your partner to watch.
The movie begins with island bum Benjamin “Finn” Finnegan (Matthew McConaughey, “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days”) scuba diving in a reef just off a Bahamian island. During the dive, Finn and partner Alfonzo (Ewen Bremner, “Elizabeth I”) discover a shard of a dinner plate that bears the family crest of 18th century Spanish royals. They believe the shard is from the sunken ship Aurelia, which contained massive amounts of treasure.
This is just the beginning of Finn’s misfortunes, as he and Alfonzo are soon picked up by two of Bigg Bunny’s henchmen.
Bigg Bunny had loaned Finn a large amount of money to bring back treasure, and a shard of the dinner plate did not impress him. Finn is taken out to sea by the henchmen, chained up and dropped into the open ocean. Amazingly and predictably, Finn manages to escape the chains, float in open waters overnight and get picked up by some intoxicated college students on spring break in Florida.
During all this, Finn is supposed to be getting divorced at a meeting with his soon-to-be-ex-wife and fellow treasure hunter Tess Finnegan (Kate Hudson, “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days”). Of course he is late to the meeting due to being stranded at sea, so what very little he owns (including the sunken Booty Call) is given to Tess without argument.
It is very obvious here that Finn and Tess still love each other. After the meeting, Finn tells Tess about his treasure, but they ultimately go their separate ways.
Of course, they are almost instantly reunited when Finn saves the hat of Tess’ boss’ (Nigel) high-maintenance, celebrity daughter Gemma (Alexis Dziena). Finn makes his way on board, realizes that Tess works on the yacht and they both manage to convince Nigel to fund their hunt for Aurelia’s treasure.
Tess and Finn scour the island for clues as to where the ship may have sank, and end up finding the answers in the oldest building on the island, a church.
All of the historic treasure is displayed in a museum, and everyone involved with the hunt becomes very rich. Tess and Finn, not surprisingly, re-marry in the end.
Although “Fool’s Gold” is not a deep, philosophical, thought-provoking movie, it is a humorous chick-flick that most men will even enjoy. The beautiful footage of the Bahamas is enough to warm up a cold winter night, and the sparks between another McConaughey/Hudson romance are more than enough reason to see this movie.
If you are looking for a good date movie, “Fool’s Gold” is an excellent choice.
