Gold

In a desperate bid to save the business he has run into the ground, the head of a Nevada mining company (Matthew McConaughey, chewing the scenery with gusto) follows a boozy vision of a gold bonanza in the Indonesian jungle. When he strikes it rich, he is besieged by all the Wall Street sharks who formerly wouldn’t return his calls. Patrick Massett and John Zinman’s script has more plot twists than is good for it, and Stephen Gaghan’s bravura direction seems intent on making the twists work. Performances, including Édgar Ramírez as a maverick geologist and Bryce Dallas Howard as McConaughey’s loyal girlfriend, save the day. Howard makes a particularly strong impression; the movie should have paid more attention to her relationship with McConaughey and less to the bromance between McConaughey and Ramírez. J.L.