All the money in the world

This is one of those cases where the making-of slightly overshadows the actual film. The much publicised reshoots to replace Kevin Spacey with Christopher Plummer with 10 days of shooting to meet a release date about a month after reshoots very much overshadow and feel way more dramatic than this slightly stodgy period film about the kidnapping of John Paul Getty III. This is neither tight enough to work as a thriller nor deep enough to work as a drama. In particular, the story keeps on being unsure precisely where to focus - we spend much of our time with Michelle Williams as the kidnapped boy's mother as she tries to negotiate some way of getting her boy free while her wealthy father-in-law (Plummer) refuses to finance his ransom, but there's continual cutaways to the kidnappers that don't really serve to either raise tension or provide much particularly dramatic.

Mark Wahlberg is also noticeably mis-cast in this as Plummer's chief negotiator - he never looks like he even vaguely fits in with this world of high privilege - Wahlberg can be quite skilled in roles where he either is innocently out of his depth or an infuriated rage monster, but as this kinda sophisticated internationalist, he's never convincing. Williams has more to do and in particular when sparring with Plummer she's got some meaty material to lock into. And Ridley Scott makes sure it all looks very ritzy. But in the end it's a flat thriller that fails to thrill, and a true story that manipulates history (in particular the ending takes several large leaps away from the actual events) for very little effect.