All the Money in the World (2017)
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.
Director:
Ridley ScottStars:
Rome, 1973. Masked men kidnap a teenage boy named John Paul Getty III (Charlie Plummer). His grandfather, Jean Paul Getty
(Christopher Plummer), is the richest man in the world, a billionaire
oil magnate, but he's notoriously miserly. His favorite grandson's
abduction is not reason enough for him to part with any of his fortune. All the Money in the World
(2017) follows Gail, (Michelle Williams), Paul's devoted, strong-willed
mother, who unlike Getty, has consistently chosen her children over his
fortune. Her son's life in the balance with time running out, she
attempts to sway Getty even as her son's mob captors become increasingly
more determined, volatile and brutal. When Getty sends his enigmatic
security man Fletcher Chace (Mark Wahlberg) to look after his interests,
he and Gail become unlikely allies in this race against time that
ultimately reveals the true and lasting value of love over money.
Country:
USALanguage:
EnglishRelease Date:
25 December 2017 (USA) See more »Also Known As:
Todo el dinero del mundo See more »Box Office
Opening Weekend USA:
$5,584,684, 31 December 2017, Wide ReleaseGross USA:
$14,342,632, 1 January 2018Cumulative Worldwide Gross:
$16,042,632, 1 January 2018Company Credits
Show more on
IMDbPro »
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Sound Mix:
Dolby DigitalColor:
ColorAspect Ratio:
2.39 : 1Did You Know?
Trivia
For the opening sequence director Ridley Scott rehashed a segment of Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita (1960). See more »Soundtracks
Tarantella
Written by Alan Lomax
Performed by Domenica Arlotta and Giuseppe Buieti
Courtesy of Rounder Records
A Division of Concord Music
Written by Alan Lomax
Performed by Domenica Arlotta and Giuseppe Buieti
Courtesy of Rounder Records
A Division of Concord Music
“All the Money in the World” is brutal and funny
in the darkest way. The dark humor comes from John Paul Getty’s attitude
toward his fortune. He’s so miserly he makes Ebenezer Scrooge look
generous. Naturally, he’s the real target here; he would have to be,
considering Gail is just another middle class single woman who barely
has two nickels to rub together, thanks to her decision to decline Getty
family funds in exchange for keeping custody of her kids after
divorcing the old man’s drug addicted son. “All the Money in the World”
would be ten minutes long if grandpa would just pay what the criminals
are asking for the release of his grandson—$17 million—instead of
hemming and hawing and trying to get the price down.
Grandpa has reasons for haggling—not good ones, but reasons.
Ultimately, though, he just seems like he’s not wired right. His
grandson’s opening narration suggests that rich people aren’t actually
like you and me—that money has deformed their minds—but the elder
Getty’s behavior is so repugnant on so many levels, and so profoundly
dislocated from anything resembling empathy, that money alone doesn’t
strike me as the best explanation for his actions. I don’t know if this
is an unresolved complication, a basic failing of the screenplay, or a
dimension that Scott and/or Plummer added to the role during shooting.
If
the latter, however, what’s onscreen is more interesting than the
younger Getty’s diagnosis, because it means we’re watching an
emotionally stunted and perhaps mentally ill person with access to
billions allow a blood relative to suffer just so that he can save a few
bucks. In other words, it’s not the money, it’s him. To most of us, the
stated ransom is an unimaginably huge amount, but to somebody like
Getty, it’s the equivalent of the coins hidden under sofa cushions. We’d
do whatever it took to save a loved one in similar circumstances, but
John Paul the First has such an oversized dealmaker’s ego that he won’t
take out his checkbook unless the terms are just right.
Gail’s
tactical restraint when confronted with her former father-in-law’s
iciness is commendable, and Williams plays it just right, letting us see
Gail’s anger and frustration while making us believe that she could
tamp it down out of sight when dealing with the elder Getty and his
associates. What astonishing discipline this woman had! The old
cheapskate acts as if this is all just a large-scale version of saving
eight bucks buying a statue at a flea market. John Paul III could be
murdered or tortured as a result of the stubbornness of an old man who
prides himself on never meeting the first offer, and trying to save
money on everything, even a transaction as basic as sending out laundry
while staying in a five-star hotel (he washes and dries his own sheets
to shave a few bucks off his tab).
Scott is relatively restrained here, letting his stars carry the day
and declining to unleash the full force of his directorial power except
in a handful of intricate setpieces (I won’t specify which ones here,
because I doubt anyone but students of the Getty family history know all
the details, and a couple of them are genuinely surprising). A certain
monotony sets in during the middle section, which replays too many
similar beats too close together—if the script were looking to combine
or cut incidents, this would’ve been the place to do it—but on the whole
this is a more-than-solid effort.
It’s also a throwback of sorts. Adapted by screenwriter David Scarpa from John Pearson's 1995 book Painfully Rich: The Outrageous Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Heirs of J. Paul Getty,
it has a welcome 1970s flavor, by which I mean that it’s about
recognizable human beings dealing with tense situations that feel real
because they happened. The story is told in classically shaped scenes
with beginnings, middles and ends, and shot mostly in real locations.
The wide-format cinematography creates tension by shoving characters off
to one side or boxing them inside doorways or windows and letting you
wonder what unseen threats might be lurking in the rest of the frame.
As
is often the case in his non-science fiction movies, Scott splits the
difference between overwhelming, almost tactile-seeming realness, and
pure, uncut Hollywood fantasy, and you just have to roll with it.
There’s a standard disclaimer at the end of the film, stating that
certain liberties were taken with the historical record. I’d imagine
that a lot of them had to do with placing Gail and her partner in
misery, Getty's business manager and former CIA operative Fletcher Chase
(Mark Wahlberg,
who isn’t terrible but does not radiate intelligence and ultimately
makes no particular impression). The movie often puts the duo at the
sites of dangerous activities that they probably didn’t get anywhere
near in real life.
The film is a testament to the awesome work ethic of its 80-year old but still apparently tireless director, who fired Kevin Spacey,
the actor who had originally played Getty, a month before the scheduled
release date, after Spacey was accused of multiple accounts of sexual
misconduct, deleted all of his footage, reshot the affected scenes with
Plummer in the role and dropped them into the finished movie. This is
not the best place to get into the particulars of the production—they’ll
be nothing more than a footnote or asterisk in a couple of decades
anyway—but they’re worth noting because the end product is much better
than anyone could have expected, considering the challenges faced and
met by all involved.
In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if Plummer
got another Oscar for this part. If he does, it shouldn’t be seen merely
as an acknowledgment of good work under weird and unfortunate
circumstances, but as recognition of how precise and fearless he is.
There is nothing likable about the elder Getty, indeed very little
that’s recognizable as anything but evidence of profound, maddening
dysfunction. Plummer embodies the character so completely that his Getty
transcends the movie he’s in, and starts to seem emblematic of the
times in which the film was released, an era when money seems to matter
more than mercy.
Thanks for reading and have fun watching movies.
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