Valentine’s Day is often accused of being a holiday created solely for the financial benefit of florists, chocolatiers, greeting card manufacturers, and other bastions of confederated corporate evil. Unfortunately, Hollywood never does much to discredit this theory and, every year about this time, we’re treated to a boatload of light-hearted, superficial romantic comedies. 2008 is no exception, as we’ve got four to choose from this season: 27 Dresses, Over Her Dead Body, Definitely, Maybe and Fool’s Gold. Depending on the degree to which you prefer your leading men and women unclothed, you may want to consider the latter, which is mostly just another excuse for Matthew McConaughey to take his shirt off and Kate Hudson to slip into a bikini. (Admittedly, movies have been made for worse reasons.)

In Fool’s Gold, McConaughey turns his surfer charm up to 11 and plays Ben "Finn" Finnegan, a down-and-out, treasure-hunting beach bum. Due to his lack of funds and direction in life, he’s close to being divorced by his wife, Tess (Kate Hudson), who happens to share his love for fortune seeking. So when he finds clues that lead him to believe he’s stumbled upon Spanish riches, buried at sea since the 18th Century, he convinces Tess to join him for one last adventure. Finn obviously hopes that the excitement surrounding the quest will rekindle their love and, as the audience, it’s hard for us to imagine that won’t happen. Joining them on their mission is Nigel Honeycutt (Donald Sutherland), just one of many characters who falls prey to Finn’s charisma and enthusiasm, a billionaire with his own sense of adventure, plus the requisite yacht.

Fool’s Gold is a short film which breezes by fairly swiftly and, while the dippy plot scarcely manages to hang together for its brief run time, once the initial set-up is out of the way, it doesn’t stop moving long enough to sag. The movie is a non-stop series of plane crashes, scuba dives, boat explosions, geyser rides, grave robberies, motorcycle chases, and knuckle sandwiches. And, making this a true Valentine's Day movie, interspersed throughout are near-kisses and "will they / won’t they?" moments, as Tess’ better judgment keeps her spurning Finn’s advances. The movie stays afloat - just barely - thanks to the chemistry that Kate and Matthew share. It truly looks like they’re having fun throughout, which is pretty crucial to this sort of screwball romp. (Although I couldn’t help but wonder how one couldn’t have fun filming along the coastlines of Australia and the Bahamas.) It’s also quite believable that these two characters ended up married primarily as a result of the good sex (which is how the script presents their relationship). Did I mention that Finn’s own boat, which sinks just minutes into the opening scene, is named "Booty Calls"? It’s a cheap gag, but one that had me giggling for just a second. So I’m going to chalk that one up in the "pros" category.

This romantic comedy fails most when it attempts to amp up the action quotient to the point of overtaking its romantic and comedic aims. It’s obvious that director Andy Tennant is using the excellent Romancing the Stone as his template and going into Fool’s Gold, I’ll admit that I was hoping for something more like that '80s classic. Tennant just doesn’t seem to be able to seamlessly mix the action and the romance. He misses the light-heartedness by staging some action and slapstick sequences that are surprisingly violent. A jagged rock to the face, a shovel to the head, and a bullet through the foot don’t transition well into and out of scenes of courtship. The film also suffers from a lack of any real doubt as to whether or not our two protagonists will end up together. What little dramatic tension it does try to create would’ve been much more effective had the couple ever seemed truly in danger of possibly failing to overcome the obstacles separating them. But alas, that's fairly status quo for romantic comedies these days.

So if you and your mate are looking for something to see this Valentine’s Day... and you’re content to sit back and watch a reaffirmation of the silly reasons people fall in love, break-up, and get back together - without any deeper examination of love beyond that - then Fool’s Gold may be just the ticket. But apart from that, if you don’t have good reason to catch this one, I wouldn’t fret. Chances are, Matthew and Kate will show up again shortly, in similar romantic comedies, paired with other good-looking costars and a nutty chain of events threatening to keep them apart. Although I suppose it’s possible you may have to wait another month or two...