IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (K. Jensen) review
Los Angeles Times (K. Turan) review
RogerEbert.com (M. Zoller Seitz) review
AVClub (A.A. Dowd) review
All the Money in the World [2017] (directed by Ridley Scott, screenplay by David Scarpa based on the book [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] by John Pearson [wikip] [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] [IMDb]) will probably be most remembered for the truly remarkable cinematic / technological feat in which director Ridley Scott and his editors _completely removed_ actor Kevin Spacey, who had been cast and played the role of J. Paul Getty [wikip] [IMDb] in the film (one of the film's principal figures) from the already finished (though yet unreleased) product, replacing him with Christopher Plummer. It's seamless. One would never guess that Christopher Plummer was not originally playing the role.
Okay then, how about the film? Well, one could say that in this era of the super-rich (re)ascendant this is this year's addition to last year's Warren Beatty starring Howard Hughes biopic Rules Don't Apply [2016]. Indeed, in an initial voice-over has J. Paul Getty's grandson, J.P. Getty III (played in the film by Charlie Plummer) introducing us to his family's unimaginably wealthy life style he ends: "We walk in this world with you, but we're _not_ like you."
By the tone of voice, it was clear that the character (again, then still late teenage J.P. Getty III) living then in Rome, Italy with his mother Jane Harris (played by Michelle Williams) did not mean this in a hostile or dismissive way. Instead, he just meant this to be a statement of fact. Why? Well he explains sometime later: His grandfather, octogenarian J. Paul Getty was then "_not merely_ the richest man in the world. Instead, he was _the richest man in the history of the world_." Indeed, in a later scene, J. Paul Getty is shown showing his grandson ruins of one of the baths of ancient Rome and explaining that he truly believed that he himself was the reincarnation of one of the Roman Emperors. Certainly no one outside of an Emperor could have possibly lived the life-style of the J. Paul Getty at the time.
Well, but that kind of money did, in fact, make the members of the Getty family targets, and five minutes into the film, after explaining to us the Gettys' position in this world through his voice over, J.P. Getty III is kidnapped, right there, after flirting with some "little people" (a number or quite random Roman prostitutes) near the edge of Rome. The rest of the story unfolds from there ...
Among that which unfolds is, of course, the whole question of what money can and can not buy. Here was the richest man in history of the world, and _one_ of _his grandchildren_ was kidnapped. And the reason why he was kidnapped was, of course, because he was "a Getty." If he was just a random Joe, then there'd be no "benefit" to kidnapping him. Then J. Paul Getty had other grandchildren. If he paid ransom _for one grandchild_ would he put _the others_ indeed his whole family in further danger? Then J.P. Getty III was actually a child of divorce. His mother had actually divorced out of the family. Was the kidnapping even legit? Or was it some sort of a scam by either a "spoiled teenager" or "vindictive ex-daughter-in-law" to "get at his money." Again, if the Gettys weren't _so insanely rich_ ... no one would care about them (or try to rip them off ...).
Anyway, it all makes for a quite interesting movie about "the difficulties of being super-rich" and perhaps like last year's Rules Don't Apply [2016] a "story for our times."
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