My wife and I binged Gold Digger (2019) over two nights on Acorn TV via Prime Video. It's an excellent, atypical whodunnit - atypical because, well...
The story is about a 60-year-old woman romantically pursued by a good looking, well-spoken, apparently sweet and sensitive guy in his mid-30s. The woman is divorced, and her kids are sure the guy wants to marry their mother for her money (at least most of them are; she is undeniably wealthy). To make matters even more intriguing, her ex-husband, now living with her her former best-friend, lives within driving distance. All of this takes in Devon, England.
Pretty compelling set-up, right? One problem, though, is that the 60-year old, Julia Day, is played by Julia Ormond, 55, and still a lot more than passably attractive. This has the effect of making Julia and Benjamin (played by Ben Barnes) less jarring together than maybe the people who made this series intended the two to be. In fact, in many scenes they looked so good together that you pretty much forgot their age difference. Come to think of it, maybe that's what the intention was all along.
I won't say anymore about the plot, because I don't want to spoil the shock and the fun. What I will say is that this mini-series forthrightly poses the question of is it impossible for a guy in his 30s to lustfully love a woman of 60, or does he have an ulterior motive, and the narrative provides all kinds of twists and bumps in your viewing journey.
All of which is buoyed by the acting, which is consistently superb. Ormand is outstanding in every scene, as is Barnes. And my favorites in the supporting cast are Alex Jennings (as Ted, the ex-husband) who was non pareil in both Victoria and The Crown, and Nikki Amuka-Bird (as his girlfriend, Marsha) whom I haven't seen before but steals almost every scene she is in and is a non-stop fountain of clever lines artfully delivered.
So ... see Gold Digger, ponder and enjoy.
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