"Gold" a harrowing survival journey with a dehydrated Zac Efron

Gold (2022)

Zac Efron has already proven that life isn’t fair for the rest of us: he’s a hunk of man who can sing, dance, be funny, and be taken seriously. In the bleak, sun-scorched survival drama “Gold,” he’s only allowed to do the latter, and it’s a challenging physical performance. For 97 minutes, director Anthony Hayes (who co-wrote the script with Polly Smyth) makes us suffer alongside Efron, feeling dehydrated by the baking sun and dry sand.

Besides playing Ted Bundy ("Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile") or receiving a golden shower by Nicole Kidman ("The Paperboy"), this is a role that we haven’t quite seen from Zac Efron. With a blistered face that’s been left out in the sun too long, Efron plays an unnamed drifter. In the middle of nowhere, he meets Man Two (played by director Anthony Hayes), paying more than $200 for a ride through the desert to an outpost. On their drive, the truck breaks down in the dry, dusty landscape, only to find a nugget of gold. While one of them must leave to retrieve tools to excavate their find, one of them must stay and endure the elements (as well as wild dogs, scorpions, and dangerous scavengers).

As simple and spare as man versus nature, “Gold” begins as an arid, grimy two-hander before becoming more of a one-man show with a few visitors here and there. It’s actually not until Susie Porter arrives as The Stranger, an interrogative wanderer, that the film's unpredictability and tension increase. At its core, this all could be read as a parable about the perils of greed, leading to a nihilistic (if logical) conclusion.

Much like Robert Redford’s nameless sailor in “All Is Lost,” there isn’t a whole lot to Efron’s stoic traveler. Credited only as Man One, he is pretty much a cipher, and yet, we are compelled and care enough to see where he ends up. He doesn’t seem to have anything but his gold findings, so he doesn’t really have anything more to lose. The part takes an intense level of commitment in how far to take one’s body, and Efron is certainly up for it. 

Arrestingly shot in seemingly arduous conditions by cinematographer Ross Giardina in the South Australian desert, the film shares some commonalities with “The Book of Eli” and “The Rover” in terms of its harsh, nearly monochromatic post-apocalyptic setting. The sense of place is so vivid and tangible that you can feel the buzzing flies swarming and landing on you as they do on Efron. Any visual effects go undetected. There is one continuity error that stands out after a devastating sandstorm, and it’s too bad the filmmakers didn’t catch it, but a wound on Efron’s character’s body keeps changing from the right to the left side of his torso. “Gold” is a gruelingly intense journey for survival, but for those who are ready for it, Efron makes an unforgiving Vitamin D overdose a harrowing experience. 

Grade: B

Screen Media is releasing “Gold” (97 min.) in theaters and on digital on March 11, 2022.