[yasr_overall_rating]
The story of the kidnapping of 16-year-old John Paul Getty III and the desperate attempt by his devoted mother to convince his billionaire grandfather Jean Paul Getty to pay the ransom.
When news broke recently about Kevin Spacey’s prior sexual assault allegations, director Ridley Scott found himself in a bit of a quandary: how should he proceed with his new film, “All the Money in the World,” which starred Spacey? As more and more accusations against the star grew, Scott took the ultimate sacrifice and completely deleted Spacey from his movie and re-cast the part with his original choice, Christopher Plummer. Scott, understandably, didn’t want negative reaction to his film because of Spacey’s behavior as many people worked on it, both in front of and behind the camera and it wouldn’t be fair to all of them because of one man’s actions. So, how is the movie? Not very good. I think it will make a lot of money because of the controversy but simply replacing one actor with another doesn’t necessarily make it a better film because it would have had to have been a good movie to begin with, and that is not the case here. Looking at the original trailer with Spacey in it, he looked almost unrecognizable but his aging make-up didn’t look very good and to be honest, I think it would have taken away from the film.
The story is based on the true story about the kidnapping of billionaire industrialist Jean Paul Getty’s (Christopher Plummer) grandson, John Paul Getty III (Charlie Plummer), on July 10, 1973, in Rome. Getty was known as a frugal man who would negotiate his way through life about anything and everything, even though at the time he was worth an estimated $2 billion. When the kidnappers contact Getty Jr’s mother Gail (Michelle Williams) and demand $17 million for his safe return, she immediately goes to Getty Sr. but he refuses to pay the ransom. Instead, he puts his righthand man, Fletcher Chase (Mark Wahlberg), a former CIA spy, on the case and sends him to Rome to find out who took his grandson and kill them if necessary so that he can come home safely. Gail is furious with Getty Sr. but he won’t budge. Gail and Fletcher arrive in Rome and end up spending months there as they try to negotiate with the kidnappers but eventually, Getty Jr. is sold to an Italian mob family who up the ante and when part of his ear arrives in the mail, Fletcher must reach out to some of his old contacts in the area to find out where he is, or risk losing the boy to the increasingly frustrated kidnappers.
The film never knows what it wants to be, one minute it’s a drama, then it’s a thriller, then it’s overly political and then it’s an action movie. It is possible to combine all of those elements successfully into one film but sadly, director Ridley Scott is not up to the challenge, not this time around. When Scott is on fire, he’s hot (“The Martian,” “Black Hawk Down,” “Gladiator”), but when he’s off his game, it shows (“The Counsellor”, “Prometheus,” “A Good Year”). “All the Money in the World” has the makings of an entertaining movie but because it’s based on a true story, there is never any real suspense as many people familiar with the case know what the outcome is going to be long before the final curtain. Wahlberg and Williams are commendable but Gail never warms up to Fletcher because he works for Getty Sr. She constantly questions his every move, reminding him that he doesn’t have kids so he can’t possibly know what she’s going through, at one point, striking him in the face with a sharp object, just to prove she means business but over the course of the film, we see him change and lean towards Gail and her predicament and at the end, after all is said and done, she suddenly informs him he is like family. Getty Sr. is the cheapest son of a bitch on the face of the earth but after Fletcher has finally had enough of him, he tells him, in no uncertain terms, just what a horrible and penny-pinching bastard he really is and supposedly, these remarks are what forced Getty to finally pay the ransom. Getty has been a miser his whole life but suddenly someone stands up to him and he changes his ways? Not likely.
“All the Money in the World” has some strong performances and a few intense scenes, including one where Getty Jr’s ear is cut off and it far surpasses the ear-cutting moment in “Reservoir Dogs” but a few good scenes do not a good movie make. I wonder if the Blu-ray will include the original cut with Kevin Spacey on it, that would make for a very interesting comparison.
In theaters December 25th
Thank you. I was wondering how much talk about the movie was the Kevin Spacey attention and how much was about it actually being a good movie.