A “transformative” performance is usually regarded as a positive thing – the kind of display that is more or less guaranteed to secure awards attention. Not so with Matthew McConaughey’s unnervingly repulsive turn as Kenny Wells, a huckster and a mineral prospector who stumbles on to what seems to be a gold strike in Indonesia. It’s the kind of performance, all sweat and spittle and jabbing fingers, that lurches off the screen and into your personal space. You find yourself recoiling slightly from his presence. But the most repellent quality of the character is not the stained underpants or his clammy complexion, the colour and consistency of old wallpaper paste. It’s the naked greed. This all-American story peels back the lid of the unloveliest qualities in the country’s psyche.
An unlikable protagonist is not always a problem. However the techniques employed by director Stephen Gaghan (Syriana) are not formally bold enough to carry the film. He favours far too many musical montages of clinking champagne glasses. The propulsive soundtrack choices create an energy, but it’s a hollow, restless energy, which emphasises the emptiness of the story and the characters within.
