When talking about the legacy of constantly busy film-maker
Ridley Scott we can’t easily dismiss the haphazard movies he had been making
throughout his career. From Black Rain, G.I. Jane to Robin Hood, and Exodus,
Mr. Scott has made numerous visually resplendent yet hollow spectacles that have
certainly faded into obscurity. Then there’s middle tier of Ridley Scott
cinema, which doesn’t possess the outstanding virtues of The Duellists, Alien,
Blade Runner, Gladiator, but it neither ends up being a disaster. Movies like
Thelma & Louise, Kingdom of Heaven, American Gangster, and The Counselor
fit into this middle category, which has enough qualities to not just end up as
a mere footnote in Ridley Scott’s relatively long career. All the Money in the
World (2017) is the new addition to this class of Scott’s works. It’s a
ripped-from-the-news thriller, although the movie’s name was omnipresent in the
headlines, few months back, due to off-the-screen developments. News articles
ratcheted up the tension on how Kevin Spacey’s replacement (the actor became box-office poison overnight due to various accusations of sexual harassment and
sexual assault), the 88 year old Christopher Plummer, is going to essay the
role and how the director is going to re-shot the sequences to release it within
the late December release date. Nevertheless, the good news is that All Money in
the World ends up being a fairly entertaining dramatic thriller which does
makes us forget the off-screen hoopla.
Ridley Scott’s assured directorial capabilities are plainly
visible in the opening sequence. A wonderful tracking shot through the busy,
festive streets of Rome as the 16 year old John Paul Getty III (Charlie Plummer) joyously takes in the scenery of urban nightlife. The year is
1973 and Paul Getty happens to be one of the heirs to the richest man in the
planet, the oil baron J. Paul Getty (Christopher Plummer). Few minutes later,
Paul is kidnapped from the Italian streets and taken to Calabrian countryside. The
kidnappers expect $17 million ransom from Paul’s wealthy industrialist
grandfather. Confronted by reporters, shadowing his vast mansion, Getty takes a hard-line policy and flatly denies the kidnapper’s demands (“I have 14
grandchildren, and if I pay a penny of ransom, I’ll have 14 kidnapped grandchildren”). This callous thinking of Getty is what fuels the quasi-thriller
narrative. The megalomaniac billionaire’s miserly nature tears up Paul’s mother
Abigail Harris (Michelle Williams).
A brief flashback reveals that Abigail has had personal
clashes with her father-in law. Getty hates Abigail for gaining sole custody of
her three children, after her divorce with Getty’s hibernating, drug-addicted
son. Getty, however, assigns his fixer Fletcher Chase (Mark Wahlberg) to get
back Paul ‘cheaply and quickly’. Chase, a former CIA security advisor join
forces with Abigail and local police force to lower the ransom price, which
becomes a very slow process that continues for months on end. Meanwhile, the
original countryside kidnappers sell young Paul to a much powerful gang. To
show that they mean business, the gang cuts Paul’s ear and sends it to a
newspaper office. Amidst all these grim
happenings, Mr. Getty is seen acquiring rare artistic paintings for millions of
dollars. Like the rich, grumpy old man whose dying words were ‘Rosebud’,
Plummer’s Getty is the perfect embodiment of capitalistic greed. At few
occasions, Getty seems more thick-skinned than the intimidating kidnappers.
Christopher Plummer is so good in the role, playing it with
subtle touch and absence of theatrics. A middle-aged actor wearing heavy prosthetic to play the octogenarian character would have been only a distraction (a mistake
Scott previously did with Guy Pearce in Prometheus) and would have rendered the
role cartoonish. In this vein, the recasting coup has actually strengthened the
narrative. Michelle Williams is equally excellent as the distressed, bewildered
mother. She impeccably carries the film’s emotional core and even when David Scarpa’s script (based on John Pearson's book) moves from one event to another in a dull manner, Williams
remains as a constantly watchable presence. Ridley Scott and his
cinematographer Dariusz Wolski’s craftsmanship would surely make the viewers
revel in the grandeur of Gettys’ universe. Although advertised as a thriller,
the family drama elements are much emotionally resonant than the functional
thriller parts. The whole hostage-recovery process isn’t as interesting as
Getty’s detestable actions. Still, at 132 minutes ‘All the Money in the World’
is a fairly compelling study of the attitudes and pretensions of an isolated, self-indulgent man, ensconced in the splendor of his moneyed world.
Trailer
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