‘All the Money’ a stylish thriller
The 1973 kidnapping of John Paul Getty III, the 16-year- old grandson of billionaire oil tycoon J. Paul Getty, is told with solid style and suspense in Ridley Scott’s “All the Money in the World.”
But style and suspense are only part of the story in the screenplay by David Scarpa, which also mines a rich vein of substance — in the form of philosophical musings about the power and nature of money, both to corrupt and to sustain — in this otherwise borderline B-movie.
Based on portions of John Pearson’s 1995 book, “Painfully Rich: The Outrageous Fortune and Misfortunes of the Heirs of J. Paul Getty,” the film is larded with such epigrammatic quips as “There’s nothing people can’t find a way to turn into money.”
That’s Fletcher Chace ( Mark Wahlberg) speaking to the kidnapped boy’s distraught mother Gail (Michelle Williams), in one of many cash-themed conversations that Scarpa shoehorns in amid the de rigueur panicking, strategizing and negotiating.
After the elder Getty (Christopher Plummer) refuses to meet the Italian kidnappers’ initial demand for $17 million for the return of his grandson, nicely portrayed by Charlie Plummer (no relation), the ransom eventually drops to $4 million. An ex- CIA operative, the cocky Fletcher is J. Paul Getty’s chief liaison with the kidnappers, police and Gail, who was left nearly penniless after divorcing the teen’s father, J. Paul Getty II (Andrew Buchan).
Mr. Getty — or the “old man,” as the billionaire is less formally known — is depicted as a soulless miser who puts Scrooge to shame. Plummer’s performance, substituting at the last minute for Kevin Spacey (who was edited out of the film after allegations of sexual impropriety were made against the actor), is a perfect fit for the role, both in age and apparent steely, pennypinching heartlessness.
The plot covers the five months during which the teenage Paul was held captive. One of the goons, nicknamed Cinquanta and played by charismatic French actor Romain Duris, even develops a tender rapport with his hostage. Cinquanta’s almost paternal affection comes in handy, in a grisly scene depicting the most lurid aspect of the kidnapping — involving a severed body part — and, later, in the film’s climactic (and heavily fictionalized) rescue sequence.
Williams is excellent, even though Scarpa’s script doesn’t give her much room to emote. Instead, Gail — who, as we’re constantly reminded — is not even a Getty by blood, proves to be a negotiator worthy of her father-in- law. In a flashback to her divorce and a bargaining session with an Italian newspaper that wants to pay her for a gruesome photo of Paul that the kidnappers have sent, the actress depicts Gail as one tough Mama Bear.
Everything and everyone has a price, the film suggests. In one of its most pointed scenes, Mr. Getty is negotiating with someone we are led to believe may be the kidnappers’ representative. But it turns out to be an art dealer offering, for $1.5 million, a religious painting.
“All the Money in the World” may not have many surprises up its sleeve for those who already know how this story ends. You will, however, get your money’s worth, one way or another — whether from the crime thriller or the thought-provoking sermon on filthy lucre thrown in at no extra charge.