Not Bad, but Not Good Either

To say that Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson have struck gold before would be an understatement. The two last paired up in a different kind of romantic comedy, ‘How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days’, a film which went on to gross over $100,000,000 domestically back in 2003. Repairing the two would seem like Hollywood gold, yet even these two aren’t enough to save this sinking ship of a film.

Plot: Benjamin Finnagin (McConaughey) is a down-on-his-luck loser who happens to be obsessed with treasure hunting. His wife, Tess Finnagin (Hudson) has grown tired of his neurotic ways and has filed for divorce. The two are on their way to becoming a statistic until Benjamin explains that he’s made a minor discovery in their most recent hunt, which has been going on for over eight years. The ‘proof’ isn’t enough to convince Tess to continue the search, and she leaves Benjamin behind while going back to her day job working for Nigel Honeycutt (Donald Sutherland), a rich entrepaneur who happens to be in town planning a vacation with his daughter, Gemma (Alexis Dziena). Nigel happens to own a yacht and has plenty of money to throw around; news that is music to Benjamin’s ears. After convincing Nigel to help the just-divorced duo search for lost gold, adventure sets sail in this somewhat entertaining, yet mildly cheesy, film.

The film offers a variety of laughs throughout, and for that reason it’s not a total failure as a whole. McConaughey and Hudson are generally entertaining and it is somewhat fun to watch the two bicker back and forth. The film doesn’t come close to achieving the romantic offset one will find in films like ‘Jewel of the Nile’, but the characters are interesting enough that it’s forgivable. Both McConaughey and Hudson do their best with what little is written for them, which generally feels like the intention. Certain scenes feel as if someone stood off-camera and thought ‘let’s just let these two do what they do and we’ll keep the cameras rolling’. If you’re honestly just looking for a slightly fun, slightly entertaining, mildly amusing romantic comedy, then these two will almost always represent a safe bet.

The directing of the film is about typical with what one would expect for a romantic comedy. Which, in all honesty, isn’t that surprising given director Andy Tennet’s resume which includes films like ‘Hitch’, ‘Sweet Home Alabama’, and’ Fools Rush In’. The adventure scenes are done surprising well, considering that Tennet seems to have no experience in that genre whatsoever. The scenes which fail drastically tend to be any involving character emotions. Tennet may be good at knowing how to film a romantic laugh, but understanding and valuing a character’s true emotions he seems to fail at. Greatly. There is no real depth to any of these characters, with the aside of what we’re given as direct dialogue. In the hands of a more able director, the film could have struck the right chord or two and elevated it past simpleminded comedic laughs.

Where the film really fails is in the oddity of certain characters. It’s as if screenwriters John Clafin and Daniel Zelman (a writing pair who wrote ‘They Nest’ and ‘Anacondas 2’) are so far out of their element here that they created shells of potential characters that are never truly fleshed out. Of particular note would be Bigg Bunny (Kevin Hart), a world famous rapper who happens to own the island the film takes place on. Why does the rapper own the island? Why does he keep employing adventure hunters to search for lost gold? The joke here is completely lost, if there was one, and the character serves no purpose other than to play the villain. Bunny is also one of the only three African Americans in the film, the other two being his dimwit partners in crime (Malcolm Jamal-Warner and Brian Hooks). Watching these three act like idiots felt like watching an entire race being degraded back an entire generation. And why was Jamal-Warner’s character Jamaican? Surely the once-star of The Cosby Show has better offers out there. Then there’s Donald Sutherland, who is either extremely too old to still be acting or had died years ago and came back from the afterlife to do this film. Sutherland never seems to know what’s going on in the film and has this look in his eye when speaking as if he’s not quite sure he even knows who he’s talking to. Alexis Dziena is twenty-four year old actress playing a character who dresses like a twenty-one year old and acts like a fourteen year old. Though her age is never quite confirmed, it was very distracting and confusing to understand her character and her character’s motives. She certainly seems interested in Benjamin, but it’s completely unclear whether or not she’s a young sapling who has a growing crush on an older man, or if she’s just an adult idiot. The fact that her character is so unclear should be a hint as to exactly how odd the film is.

There are certainly far worse ways to spend an hour and forty minutes and if you don’t mind a bit of silliness, confusion, and slight racism, then there is fun to be had here. However, most will probably expect more from the Hudson-McConaughey pair.