"...Misery As A Tax Loss..."
All The Money In The World
It's possibly not going to
win me a 'man of the year' award by saying this - but as good as Christopher
Plummer is in "All The Money In The World" (he got Oscar nominated
for his work but lost out to Sam Rockwell for his astonishing performance in
"Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri") - you can't help
thinking that the disgraced Kevin Spacey was the right first choice for the
lead role and would have rocked this sucker with a creep-inducing vengeance (he
probably did, if the footage ever gets out there).
As it is - "All The
Money In The World" is a strangely interesting but ultimately frustrating
and empty watch. The world’s first billionaire John Paul Getty Sr. (as played
by Plummer) was such an unbelievable prick and money-miser that at the beginning
of the movie the makers decided to put in a warning/advice note – 'most of what
you're about to see is true'. The inference is obvious - such was Getty Sr.'s
almost psychotic dispassion towards even his own flesh and blood in mortal
peril - you have to be told that what you're about to see actually happened.
Worse - as it trundles along and the gore and sell-outs start to pile up - your
loathing of this greedy penny-pinching tyrant begins to crush any empathy you
have with the victim and his awful story. After a while you just want someone
(anyone) to shoot that sickening man and shame him globally - but it appears
'money' did all the talking then and you worry, still does.
It's beautifully filmed of
course and the cast (Michelle Williams, Mark Wahlberg, Romain Duris and Charlie Plummer especially as the tortured John Paul Getty III) are exemplary - but again this is yet another unsatisfying Ridley Scott movie and I'm
glad I gave it a whirl at only £1.99 because that's all it deserves.
"Den Of Thieves" is a hundred times more entertaining as an actioner and if you want a brain-fest with a cracking cast lapping up utterly brill dialogue and clever plotting then Aaron Sorkin's "Molly's Game" is a better port-of-call...
"Den Of Thieves" is a hundred times more entertaining as an actioner and if you want a brain-fest with a cracking cast lapping up utterly brill dialogue and clever plotting then Aaron Sorkin's "Molly's Game" is a better port-of-call...
