All The Money in the World Review

All The Money in the World is the true story about the kidnapping of John Paul Getty III and the journey his mother takes to convince his billionaire grandfather, Getty Sr., to pay the ransom money.

Firstly, I have to say I think Christopher Plummer really stole the show in this movie as Getty. After looking back at the first trailer for this movie and watching the same scene with Kevin Spacey, I think I actually prefer Plummer’s delivery of the lines more, so props to him for shooting all his scenes within such a short time span after Spacey’s departure. I also thought it was more genuine to have a real old man rather than Spacey in makeup, which makes me wonder why they didn’t just use an older man from the start.

However, the buzz around Plummer’s role shouldn’t undermine the great performance by Michelle Williams in this movie, who really sold the constant stressed state of this mother who is basically helpless trying save her son as Getty continues to refuse her pleas for the money. She probably brings most of the heart to this movie, even though it’s not much.

I also really liked how they gave backstory on why that kid was so special to Getty in the first place, because it made Getty seem that much more ruthless regarding the safekeeping of his riches. However, this leads to my negatives on the film. The plot was extremely repetitive, in my opinion. Not much happens throughout the movie other than repeated failed attempts at trying to get Getty to give up the money that are curtly built up and tossed away in order to lead to more empty threats from the kid’s captors. The movie continues to follow this pattern until a turning point that finally heightened the tension of the situation.

However, this happens towards the third act, which doesn’t make up for the monotony I had to endure in the majority of the previous scenes. I understand that it’s hard to bash on the content of the story because it is based on true events, but I just don’t think this was a story that worked cinematically. I do think the story is interesting to hear about on paper, but as a 2 hour film, I think they bit off more than they could chew.

My main grievance was that I didn’t really connect to any of the characters emotionally. The film constantly focuses on the main plot with the ransom money, leaving no room for character growth through more human conversations. There are some scenes that build a relationship between the kid and one of his captors (Romain Duris), which I thought were interesting, but there wasn’t much payoff that really made it matter in the end. The ending didn’t really have that cathartic bang I was expecting after the more character driven set up at the beginning of the film.

In conclusion, All the Money in the World was enjoyable for the most part, but isn’t something I would recommend anyone to go run out and see, especially with the string of critically acclaimed films that are popping up right now. It’s good, but nothing special or a contender for one of the best of the year, in my opinion.

The Verdict: 6.5