Rating: 3.5/5
Classification: MA15+
Year of release: 2017
Run-time: 2 hours 12 minutes
Director: Ridley Scott
Cast: Michelle Williams, Christopher Plummer, Mark Wahlberg, Romain Duris
Genre: Crime, Drama
This review contains no spoilers
All the Money in the World is inspired by true events and based on the book “Painfully Rich: The Outrageous Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Heirs of J. Paul Getty” by John Pearson, and is set in 1973 when a 16-year-old boy named John Paul Getty III (Charlie Plummer) is kidnapped. John’s mother Gail Harris (Michelle Williams) must now convince her ex-father-in-law billionaire Jean Paul Getty (Christopher Plummer) who is the richest man on Earth to pay the ransom for setting Gail’s son free. This movie has had plenty of publicity for sure when it was announced that Kevin Spacey was going to be replaced with Christopher Plummer when word got around about Kevin Spacey’s multiple sexual misconduct allegations. This was completely unheard of when this decision was made only a month and a half before the movie’s release date without being postponed, and within the short period of time Kevin Spacey’s scenes were reshot with Christopher Plummer replacing him, costing $10 million and taking eight days to film during the Thanksgiving break.
Anyway, how is this movie, I enjoyed it, it was very difficult to watch it without thinking about Christopher Plummer replacing Kevin Spacey, but in the end this was a blessing in disguise, Christopher Plummer’s character has a very significant role and gives a great performance and definitely seems more suitable for the role than Kevin Spacey because Christopher Plummer is genuinely an old man. This isn’t the type of movie that Ridley Scott usually makes however he pulled it off very well, Christopher Plummer replacing Kevin Spacey is very seamless and it looks like Kevin Spacey was never in this movie, and no despite having the same last name Charlie Plummer who plays John Paul Getty III is not related to Christopher Plummer.
But All the Money in the World is also a very interesting crime story, the crisis of John Paul Getty III’s kidnapping will have many edge of your seat moments for sure and will surely make those who haven’t read up their history for this movie constantly second guessing about what will happen in this movie. As the title also suggests one of the main characters of the movie that is Jean Paul Getty has more money than he knows what to do with, the movie also explores the themes of how having too much money can be a positive thing but also how it can be a negative thing. All the Money in the World is not one of Ridley Scott’s best movies however it is a very enjoyable movie boasting a gripping crime story, great performances from Michelle Williams, Christopher Plummer and Mark Wahlberg and given that this is based on true events might even make audiences researching about this story or if not stories similar to this one.