I'm too young to have lived through the kidnapping
of J. Paul Getty III. I've heard about it before this movie though and read
about it while going down Wikipedia rabbit holes at different points. In case you aren't
aware of the story, in July of 1973, the grandson of J. Paul Getty, the richest
man in the history of the world, was kidnapped in Italy. Getty famously refused
to pay the ransom and haggled for months to get the ransom down. All the Money
in the World is a dramatization of the story.
Charlie Plummer plays the kidnapped grandson.
Michelle Williams plays his mother, who married into then divorced out of the
Getty family. Mark Wahlberg is Fletcher Chase, the former special ops agent
hired to get the kidnapped teenager back. Romain Duris is the kidnapped Getty's
primary handler. The key bit of casting is Christopher Plummer as J. Paul
Getty. What makes it especially key was that until 2 months ago, the role was
played by Kevin Spacey. After Spacey's fall from grace, director Ridley Scott
rushed to reshoot Spacey's scenes weeks before the film was scheduled to be
released rather than delay the release. I was already looking forward to
this movie before all that happened. That only made me more curious. And,
Christopher Plummer is very good in the film. I spent the first half of the
film distracted by three things: 1) thinking about how Spacey would've done
that scene, 2) wondering which shots were from the original shoot and which
were from the reshoots 3) being thoroughly impressed by how much Plummer is in the
film. I did finally settle into a groove and enjoyed the movie on its own.
I didn't like this film as much as I'd hoped. It's hard to make a film about a well publicized event. Life doesn't happen like a movie script, so the screenplay bends over backwards trying to shuffle everything to work in a satisfying way. I was somewhat prepared for that, although I expected it would be smoothed out a bit more than it was. More importantly, I don't think the movie ever decided on what the point was of telling a story about Getty. I believe the idea was to show how these people live an existence much different than every one else: in lazy terms, "the burden of wealth". That's more stated than shown though. It all centers around Getty, who is a complex individual. The film wants to understand Getty more than condemn him, which is great. It's hard to do this when also keeping him at a distance so much.
Perhaps this is a problem stemming from the fact that the film attempts to tell the story from every angle. Getty being cold and elusive is the key story to the movie, but it's only a supporting story. Williams and Walhberg trying to get the young J. P. Getty III back and getting stonewalled at every step by the older Getty is the largest part of the film. They are both fine, although they are giving completely reactive performances for most of the film. It's the aspect of the movie that feels most bound by the actual events. I could've gone without following J. P. Getty III at all. He's mainly followed in the film to let the audience know that the kidnapping isn't a hoax. Thematically, I don't see any value to it. That's not to say Charlie Plummer or Romain Duris were bad. They do good albeit unneeded work.
I feel like I'm being more negative than I intend to be. The movie moves at a nice pace despite being a little on the long side. The real star of the movie is Ridley Scott's direction. The set design is dripping with obscene wealth. There's a great Chris Rock bit from years ago about how he doesn't want to be rich. He wants to be wealthy, because that a-whole-nother level. All the Money in the World is a visual essay designed to explain the difference. This is the kind of movie in which all the parts are good when I was hoping they'd be great. There's worse things to be.
Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend
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