All The Money In the World review: Kevin Spacey replacement Christopher Plummer is worth every penny
Dir: Ridley Scott; Starring: Michelle Williams, Christopher Plummer, Mark Wahlberg, Charlie Plummer, Romain Duris, Andrew Buchan. 15 cert, 133 mins
When it comes to the bone-splintering crunch of it, how much in cold, hard currency are any of us actually worth? It’s a question Kevin Spacey must have asked himself after his performance as the oil baron J Paul Getty was cut from Ridley Scott’s new film in light of widespread allegations of sexual harassment.
The answer in Spacey’s case is evidently far less than the cost of the extraordinary 11th-hour reshoots which saw Scott’s all-but-finished film hauled back into production for nine days, during which the disgraced actor’s performance was replaced in full by Christopher Plummer – Scott’s original choice for the role, until the studio persuaded him to cast the bigger star. But the question is also a central plank of the film itself.
This is a stylishly streamlined, thriller-ised account of the kidnapping of Getty Sr’s grandson Paul in 1973, and the mayhem that ensued when the old man – then the richest who had ever lived – refused to pay a penny for the boy’s release.
The film is a barnstormer on its own terms, but knowledge of its last-second reworking undoubtedly gives the action an extra purr of panic, as if Sir Ridley himself might be tucked behind the cinema screen, adding finishing touches while you watch.
First and foremost, the film confirms Christopher as the most reliable emergency Plummer in history. He is icily brilliant in the role, making Getty a cloistered empire-builder in the Ridley Scott tradition, alongside Gladiator’s Emperor Commodus, Blade Runner’s Eldon Tyrell and Alien: Covenant’s Peter Weyland. Like them, Getty is a man not drunk on power, but driven so stonily sober by its possibilities, he has come to see the workings of the world in a frosty new light.
So when his grandson (Charlie Plummer, no relation) is bundled into a van on the streets of Rome one morning by an Italian crime syndicate and ransomed for $17 million, he sees the threat as just another deal, to be shaken on or walked away from depending on how the terms and conditions shake out.
At a press conference on the steps of his estate, he is asked how much he would pay for the safe return of one of his grandchildren. “Nothing,” he replies, with an almost imperceptible but thoroughly bone-chilling smile and a shrug.
Naturally, this approach terrifies Paul’s mother Abigail (Michelle Williams), who sets about searching for her boy with the help of the Italian police and also the Getty family fixer Fletcher Chace (Mark Wahlberg), a former CIA man well-versed in high-stakes negotiations.
The muscular screenplay by David Scarpa, adapted from a biography of Getty Sr by John Pearson, swan-dives right into the moral black hole that opens up when a human life becomes an asset to be cashed in or carved up at the discretion of investors.
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As ever with Scott, the film unfolds in a richly realised world and moves with an addictive, free-wheeling swagger. And his four main actors – Williams, Wahlberg and the Plummers old and young – have all been astutely cast. Michelle Williams is particularly good – there is a trace of Audrey Hepburn in her increasingly weary Mid-Atlantic inflections – while the strong physical resemblance between her and Paul helps set the two a step apart from the baleful Getty clan.
The film suggests Getty Sr would love nothing more than to turn his family into a dynasty – a fine way to turn fallible flesh and blood into a cast-iron long-term investment.
“You have to give me some time here,” Abigail fretfully explains to one of the kidnappers (Romain Duris) on the telephone, as her father-in-law continues to stonewall her pleas for help. “I’m fighting an empire here.” Scott’s greatest heroes usually are.
All The Money In The World is released in UK cinemas on Friday January 5
