All The Money In The World
4 stars
Director: Ridley Scott
Stars: Michelle Williams, Christopher Plummer, Mark Wahlberg
Duration: 132 mins
Class: TBA
KRS Releasing Ltd
On November 8, 2017, just days after the allegations of sexual misconduct began to surface against Hollywood actor Kevin Spacey, industry press reported that director Ridley Scott was planning to remove all the scenes involving the actor from his forthcoming movie All the Money in the World – not merely cutting them from the film but reshooting them with another actor in place – Christopher Plummer.
Scott’s swift action to distance himself from Spacey and to ensure the film was seen and received on its own merits was commendable. And so began an intense 10-day shoot in Rome and London for the veteran actor, with co-stars Michelle Williams and Mark Wahlberg willingly reporting back for duty for the reshoot in order to meet the film’s scheduled December 22 release date, merely weeks away.
What makes this even more remarkable is the mind-blowing fact that the role Plummer took over – that of noted billionaire John Paul Getty – was not a mere cameo. He is pretty much the co-protagonist of the piece, and he proffers an astonishingly insightful and three-dimensional portrait of the man, highlighting his unhealthy, obsessive and ultimately miserly relationship with his billion-dollar fortune.
At once a character study and nail-biting thriller
The film, based on the non-fiction book Painfully Rich: The Outrageous Fortune and Misfortunes of the Heirs of J. Paul Getty by John Pearson, focuses on the 1973 kidnapping of Getty’s grandson, 16-year-old John Paul Getty III – known as Paul (Charlie Plummer). The youth is snatched in Rome by the Calabrian mob, who demand a $17 million ransom, which Getty Snr refuses to pay. His former daughter-in-law Gail (Michelle Williams) is unable to turn to her ex-husband J.P. Getty II for help (he’s by now a drug-addicted shadow of his former self) and actually has no money of her own, despite everyone thinking otherwise. She has to use all her wits in order to bring her son home safely.
The film is at once a character study and nail-biting thriller. The script by David Scarpa offers numerous flashbacks setting the context, while Scott keeps the tension tight as the kidnapping ordeal unfolds. Charlie Plummer (no relation to Christopher) easily nails the wide-eyed innocence of an over-protected rich kid in no way capable of handling the situation.
Initially, Paul is treated rather well by his captors – led by the sympathetic Cinquanta (Romain Duris) – until his grandfather’s unflinching obstinacy forces them into a very ugly act of violence. The police investigations lead nowhere, and Gail grows increasingly frantic as time passes with no end in sight.
Williams – a certain contender for awards glory – continues to grow in stature, excelling here as Gail Getty, a woman whose (married) name carried so much power, yet who herself was powerless in the face of this horrible situation.
Williams’s performance is equally poignant and admirable as this quiet, unassuming woman overcome with fear and tension who rides on those feelings to become a force to be reckoned with, a force that ultimately even the immovable Getty Snr couldn’t stop.
Mark Wahlberg is unassuming and low-key in the role of Getty fixer Fletcher Chace, eventually tasked by Getty Snr to get his grandson back in the most ‘inexpensive’ way possible.
All the Money in the World could very well bring Plummer his second acting Oscar, following his Best Supporting Actor win in 2010 for Beginners. Here – with clearly very little prep time – he effortlessly embodies a man who is “not just the richest man in the world, but the richest man in the history of the world”, an astonishing portrayal of a man to be admired for single-handedly building an oil fortune.
Yet, his ice-cold heartlessness is breathtaking, as witnessed by his haughty defence of his decision not to pay the ransom, reasoning this would encourage kidnapping plots against other members of his family. He claims that he does not have the money to spare, and turns every encounter with Gail into a business meeting, all the while seeing what he himself can get out of it.
Yet, in Scott’s direction, the script by David Scarpa and in Plummer’s performance, there is little sign of caricature. The portrayal is only of a man whose fortune turned him into a bitter, obsessive, paranoid and arrogant man completely cut off from reality, isolated from humanity and for whom happiness could not be bought with all the money in the world.