All the Money in the World

Starring: Michelle Williams, Christopher Plummer, Mark Wahlberg, Romain Duris, Timothy Hutton, Charlie Plummer
Directed by: Ridley Scott
Rating: R
Genre: Drama
2017

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: After 16-year old John Paul Getty III (Charlie Plummer) is kidnapped, his mother (Michelle Williams) embarks on a desperate attempt to get his billionaire grandfather (Christopher Plummer) to pay the ransom.

Review:

Tim: All the Money in the World was unfortunately hit with a number of controversies in its production. The most glaring one is the revelations of Kevin Spacey's disgusting misconduct, which required cutting him entirely from the film and replacing him with Christopher Plummer. More on that in a minute. The other big issue was that during the reshoots, Mark Wahlberg was paid 1000x more for the work than Michelle Williams was. This certainly brought additional controversy to the film. Despite these issues, Ridley Scott still puts together a solid movie. I wouldn't say this was an especially good movie, but it's surprisingly effective for all the upheaval in production.

You have to start a discussion of this film by highlighting the amazing job Christopher Plummer did stepping into this role. He had less than two weeks to prepare and then shot all his scenes in eight days. The shocking thing isn't that they pulled this off (which is impressive), but that Plummer is so damn good in the role. He gives this complex, layered performance that sticks with you long after the film ends. He gives the best performance of the film and he had almost no time to prepare. It's a stunning achievement that he was recognized with an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor (the film's only nomination). He was the best part of the film, even when he's at his most unlikable.

Michelle Williams in good in her role. She has a few nice sequences throughout the movie. I've seen her better, but her performance here works. Mark Wahlberg was okay. I can't say it was one of his better performances. He didn't do anything wrong, but it felt like the movie needed a stronger actor in this role. Charlie Plummer was decent as the younger Getty. The cast as a whole felt fine- Plummer was great, Williams was good, Wahlberg was okay. There's no big issues here, but it didn't feel like the cast as a whole gave their best performances.

Scott directs a fairly interesting story, although it's so obviously too long a film. The story is engaging, but it stretches a bit too thin to cover the 2 hour, 12 minute run time. The movie needed to be a good 15 minutes shorter. I don't think it would have been too hard to cut that amount of time. The film does lag in a few places. Now, it's not like the movie is boring. Scott crafts some unbelievably intense sequences. I loved the look into the kidnapping and what it was like for Getty. The movie jumps back-and-forth in a good way that does maintain a decent sense of momentum for the film. I can't say I ever loved any of these characters, so I wasn't overly engaged in their story. Plummer is purposely unlikable and other than the universal understanding of a mother trying to protect her son, the film didn't give us a ton of reasons to care about Williams' character. Wahlberg's performance isn't strong enough for us to really identify with his character. So, some of the impact of the story is blunted. Fortunately, Scott is a talented enough director that he never completely loses the audience. I might not have felt deep emotional connection, but I cared enough to want to see the story through to completion.

All the Money in the World is mostly worth watching for the impressive performance of Plummer on such short notice. The movie itself is good, but ultimately too long and not quite as powerful as it needed to be. Still, a good movie is a good movie and Scott definitely delivered in that realm.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 7



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Ransom