Like many films out at this time of year, All The Money In The World is a Golden Globe nominee which is of course the sign of a great film. It's up for Best Director (Ridley Scott), Best Actress (Michelle Williams) and Best Supporting Actor (Christopher Plummer) but interestingly didn't get a nomination in the Best Film category.
All The Money In The World is loosely based on a true story set in the 1970s. J. Paul Getty (Plummer) is literally the world's richest man and his grandson Paul is kidnapped with a $17 million ransom being asked. The dodgy Italians who have kidnapped him aren't experts in the game but do enough to put Paul's life genuinely on the line. Paul's mum Gail (Williams), who married into the Getty family but is now divorced from Paul's addict, estranged father, is caught up in the complex negotiations between the kidnappers and J.P. Getty who appears steadfast in his determination to not pay the ransom. (He has 17 grand children and figures they'll all be kidnapped if he starts paying ransoms.)
Michelle Williams, Christopher Plummer and the young bloke who plays Paul (Charlie Plummer - no relation to Christopher) are all really terrific in this. Christopher was famously recruited to the role to replace Kevin Spacey, who had already filmed the whole thing when his sex abuse scandal hit the headlines.
So what did I think of the film? Cut to the chase, I hear your hollering!
I didn't love it. For me it's one of those ones where the pieces of the puzzle are there and you feel like you should like it and you just don't. It builds to a tense crescendo as you might expect but I didn't feel tense in a 'how will this story end?' kind of way, rather a 'I just want this film to be over' kind of way. I mean, of course it's not terrible, it just didn't do it for me. They didn't give me enough to like about the characters to care enough about how it ended.
For me personally, I enjoyed the performance of Mark Wahlberg who played an ex-CIA agent working for J.P. Getty to lead the negotiations with Gail. I reckon he's underestimated sometimes because of the beefcake thing but he's really very good. AND YES HE'S A HOT BEEFCAKE I AM ONLY HUMAN OK?!
Perhaps my feelings were impacted by the moronic bogan sitting next to me doing that annoying 'say what everyone's thinking' in full voice. For example, and I am not kidding, "Oh, don't trust that guy!" ... "As if she's gunna do that!" ... "What a dickhead!"... #ironic. Seriously folks, a cinema is not your lounge room. Shut up!
I reckon this 3.5 star review in News Ltd is fair.
Trailer here. In cinemas now.