All that glitters is not sparkling comedy in "Gold"

By Michael Rechtshaffen

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The last time Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson did the rom-com thing was in 2003's middling "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days."

They are reunited in an adventure comedy by the name of "Fool's Gold," though it could have been called "How to Lose an Audience in 10 Minutes."

A soggy, listless affair, this would-be fun-in-the-sun sunken-treasure frivolity starts taking on water from the get-go, thanks to drawn-out exposition and languid pacing.

Director Andy Tennant has demonstrated a Midas touch with such movies as "Hitch" and "Sweet Home Alabama," though without a Will Smith or Reese Witherspoon to ride out those rough patches, "Fool's Gold" likely will mine a lot less lucre, especially given a market that's currently awash in date-night fare.

McConaughey's Ben "Finn" Finnegan is a career booty hunter whose burning obsession concerns the legendary Queen's Dowry, a shipload of priceless Spanish treasure believed to have sunk in Caribbean waters in the early 1700s.

His latest ill-fated expedition has landed him in deep water with ruthless rapper-gangster Bigg Bunny (Kevin Hart), with whom he already is in escalating debt.

While Finn is being forced to walk the plank off Bigg Bunny's boat, his ex is about to mark the spot on their divorce papers. Even though the Queen's Dowry was what initially brought them together, for the past eight years Kate Hudson's Tess has watched their marriage continually place second to Finn's undersea pursuits.

Determined to get her life back on track, she's been working as a steward aboard the Precious Gem, a huge yacht owned by billionaire Nigel Honeycutt (Donald Sutherland).