Review of All the Money in the World (2017) by Dana F — 27 Aug 2018

This movie had all the makings of a truly gripping suspense thriller - a rich man, a kidnapping, a desperate mother, Rome, Ridley Scott, etc. - but there's just something bland and unremarkable about it.

This movie tells a version of the story of the kidnapping of J Paul Getty's grandson in 1973. It definitely takes some liberties with the real story, I would say for dramatic effect... except that the film isn't all that dramatic.

The direction is crisp and the film looks fantastic (true to Scott's aesthetic), but the story does not flow so well and the characters are thinly written. It's the performances that make this movie stand out.

.. along with the highly publicized ousting of Kevin Spacey in favor of Christopher Plummer as J Paul at the last minute, which I have to say was definitely the right decision regardless of the social implications of having Spacey in the movie.

Plummer is brilliant in the role, and I can't imagine how insufferable Spacey would have been in it. Even though Plummer was great, I was annoyed that the character was written so shallowly. He's a despicable guy with zero redeeming qualities, so the character is reduced to just another greedy mustache-twirling villain, with no explanation or understanding of how or why that came to be.

It's the dazzling Michelle Williams as J Paul III's mother that is truly deserving of the accolades - she is such a pro, she can add depth to a paper bag. Like many true crime stories, the movie caves to the temptation of focusing too much on the facts/details of the events rather than developing the characters.

As a result, you don't end up caring about what happens to any of them: the good, the bad, or the ugly. The story takes too long to gain momentum (like an hour and a half), but when it finally does, it grabs you.

I'm sure it helped that I knew absolutely nothing about this story, so at times I was really on the edge of my seat, having no idea of what the real outcome was. But those moments were too few and far between, and as a whole I found it to be underwhelming.

And perhaps the most telling of all is that I could barely remember it the next day. The film is not as clunky as its title, but it's close.