Gold (2022)

No character has a name in this, but Clint Eastwood it isn't. Zac Efron is taking a pee out in the desert when he spots an uncommonly large deposit of gold. His pal Anthony Hayes and he try to move it, but it's just too big. Plan? Well Hayes decides to head to the nearest town to try and procure some heavy lifting equipment and leaves Zac to keep watch. Hmmm? Well, anyway Hayes isn't exactly rushing back to his friend who is gradually running out of food, water, having hallucinations, fending off wild dogs and even a rogue Irish women as his grasp on reality starts to slip... Efron is actually not bad as the man who gradually succumbs to despair and dehydration, but the story plods along far too slowly for almost eighty minutes before the last ten minutes provide a denouement with a bit of a twist to the tale. It is good that Efron is pushing himself away from his pretty boy roles - indeed the make-up folks here do such a good job that I doubt even a biblical leper would welcome him into their home, but the story all takes way too long to get going and the it, quite literally, crawls along. The production does look good - the desert photography has an almost naturally sepia colour to it that emphasises just how hostile this terrain is and the narrative does say something about the degree to which greed is hard wired into our psyche though; and the perils we will endure or permit to obtain wealth. Thought provoking? Maybe, but it's still really quite a wearisome watch and I'm not sure I would bother again.