The "gold" of the title refers to an elusive pirate's booty, but it just as easily could mean the sun-washed glistening shores of Florida, or the sumptuously tanned bodies of its appealing stars, Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey. The whole film is awash in golden highlights, and the scenery and cinematography make the experience akin to taking a tropical holiday. Hudson and McConaughey reprise the chemistry they first exhibited in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, sparking and tangling and kvetching, while all the while the audience knows, of course, they adore each other and are perfect for each other.
McConaughey is a dreamer, on the trail of a sunken pirate's treasure, and Hudson his now-ex-wife, a historian who prefers life to be a little more sedate. McConaughey, as Finn, delivers impassioned speeches to Hudson, as Tess, saying, "You want history? It's in the ocean, lady!" Before you can say Romancing the Stone, Tess and Finn are grudgingly reunited in search of the booty. If the plot doesn't contain many surprises, the froth of the stars' chemistry is amiable and makes for a perfect date movie. Scuba divers may find McConaughey's antics below the surface to be wildly unbelievable and usually fatal, but in the end viewers will root for him to surface, and recapture the heart of his lady love.
--A.T. Hurley