Mr. Movie review: ‘All the Money in the World,’ and still not a good movie

Director Ridley Scott’s film is based on part of John Pearson’s book about billionaire J. Paul Getty’s family and the tragedies that family endured. The film’s focus is the part of the book dealing with the 1973 kidnapping of Getty’s grandson, J. Paul Getty III. Getty refused to pay the $17 million ransom, saying he has 14 grandchildren and it would place them in danger as well.

Scott’s movie and David Scarpa’s (2008’s The Day the Earth Stood Still) screenplay contends — and so does history — the reason is because Getty was a miser and had no love for anything other than money.

Getty is played by Christopher Plummer. Michelle Williams does his daughter-in-law Abigail, and Mark Wahlberg is the Getty security guy assigned to help her get the kid back. They have very little to do for the film’s 2 hours, 15 minutes, except look worried and rush here and there from time to time to look more worried.

The only interesting work in the film is that of Plummer, who’s getting accolades and nominations for his performance. That’s maybe the most interesting aspect of the movie. The Kevin Spacey controversy and quickly replacing him with Plummer might actually help this drawn out, real-life-based drama sell more tickets.

Plummer, by the way, looks a whole lot more like billionaire J. Paul Getty than Spacey.

Knowing Plummer replaced Spacey will have many of you trying to find long shots and scenes with Getty’s back to the camera that are actually Spacey and not Plummer. That’s a much more interesting exercise than trying to wade through a film that has zero tension and is half an hour too long.

This story was originally published December 21, 2017 at 12:38 PM with the headline "Mr. Movie review: ‘All the Money in the World,’ and still not a good movie."