MARTAIN

AN excellent movie in its own right, All the Money in the World is a film that has, unfortunately, become known for all the wrong reasons.

It is impossible to talk too much about this Ridley Scott-directed thriller without reference to Kevin Spacey and the allegations about sexual assault currently tearing through Hollywood.

Spacey had been cast in the leading role of oil tycoon J.Paul Getty and had finished filming all his scenes when the sexual assault claims broke.

Spacey essentially vanished from public life and director Scott was stuck with a recently completed film starring one of the most hated men in America. So he made the decision to recast Christopher Plummer in the role and re-shoot all the relevant scenes.

Much to Plummer’s credit, he plays the role exceptionally well, and much to Scott’s credit the finished film is edited together so seamlessly that you would never know it had been so severely gutted and re-edited.

Controversy aside, All the Money in the World is a rather captivating tale about greed, empathy and principle, held together with some excellent acting performances and a very well-written script.

The film is based on the true story of the kidnapping of teenager John Paul Getty III (played here by Charlie Plummer) in the 1970s. Young Paul was the grandson of oil tycoon J.P. Getty (Christopher Plummer), the man who started shipping oil out of Saudi Arabia and subsequently became so idiotically rich that even he had no idea what to do with all his wealth.

But as well as being rich, Old Man Getty was also notoriously tight. Let’s just say he didn’t get rich by paying full price for a $2 coffee.

And when the kidnappers pinched young Paul, they thought they were holding a licence to print money, demanding $17 million in ransom from the family.

But their plan hit a wall. Old Man Getty was not going to pay a single cent in ransom, no matter what.

What follows is a thrilling race against time as Paul’s mum, Gail (Michelle Williams), searches frantically for some way of raising the cash for the ransom without the help of her father-in-law.

Ridley Scott has already said Spacey’s footage as Getty will never be publicly shown, so we might never know just how good or otherwise his performance actually was. But it hardly matters now because Plummer’s is so compelling.