Review: 'Gold' is a barebones attempt at a survival thriller, but Zac Efron sacrifices glamour for a gritty role

Watching “Gold,” one notices two things right away: 1) It’s not so much a movie as it is the skeletal framework for a movie, and, 2) Zac Efron deserves points for trying to shake off his pretty-boy image to do something dark and gritty, even if it doesn’t hold together.

Efron’s character is heading to someplace called The Compound, in this near-future desert dystopia that feels about five years away from full Mad Max apocalypse. (Like George Miller’s classics, this movie is also filmed in Australia on a shoestring budget.) His plan — as he tells the guy (played by the film’s director and co-screenwriter, Anthony Hayes) he’s paid to give him a ride — is to make money performing hard labor at The Compound, enough to secure his future.

Somewhere on the way, their car breaks down, and Efron’s character goes exploring. (One of the pretentious of the script Hayes and co-writer Polly Smyth devise is not giving any character a name, so I’ll use to the actors’ names from here on.) Efron finds something in the dirt: A coffee-table-sized nugget of gold. After testing it to make sure It’s real, the two come up with a plan: Efron will stand guard over the gold, while Hayes drives across the desert to a town to get an excavator.

The questions the movie poses from this point are simple: Can Efron stay alive, with limited water and food, baking in the hot sun and trying to avoid snakes, scorpions and wild dogs? And can he survive without going crazy, either hallucinating or becoming paranoid that Hayes won’t return?

When a nomadic woman (Susie Porter) comes across Efron as he guards his treasure, it seems the second question answers itself — and, within moments, the first question becomes a topic for discussion.

Hayes’s film becomes a showcase for Efron to play solitary survivalist. In a few scenes, Efron is quite effective, like when he gets wild-eyed while waving a torch in the pitch-black night, fending off wild dogs who he hears but doesn’t see. Efron also goes for the glam-free look, with makeup designer Jennifer Lamphee layering on simulated sunburned skin to his face.

Even with Hayes’ bag of directing tricks, and with Efron’s go-for-broke performance, there’s no covering up the barebones state of the screenplay. The plot of “Gold,” ngoes everywhere a viewer expects it to go, and takes enough time getting there that it drains whatever suspense might have been wrung from it.

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‘Gold’

★★1/2

Opens Friday, March 11, in some theaters. Rated R for language and some violent content. Running time: 97 minutes.