What could you possibly want when you have #AllTheMoneyInTheWorld The answer is quite simple and blindingly obvious “More”! as J Paul Getty (Christopher Plummer) announces in the most banal baritone, a response that simultaneously enrages and deflates Fletcher Chase (Mark Wahlberg) and the audience. Were we expecting something more? The meaning of life, universe and everything, perhaps?
This honest realisation about the world’s richest man of his time forms the backbone of the story and the basis for a dispassionate story telling of an other-wise traumatic kidnapping of Paul Getty (the grandson, Charlie Plummer). Yes, there are a few nervous moments of ‘will the boy be rescued’ and ‘are they really going to torture him’. But the main story revolves around the characters going through the ‘process’ of kidnapping-ransom-rescue, because that’s just how any business in an American capitalist set up is done. Negotiations take time, and everything has a value equation. Benefit divided by the Cost of getting it.
And everyone gets it. They hate it, but they get it. Gail Harris gets it, the mother of the kidnapped boy (Michelle Williams). Fletcher Chase gets it, the ex-CIA man sent to rescue the boy. And sometimes we feel even Paul himself gets it (the kidnapped boy). Ironically, the only person that doesn’t get it is one of the Italian kidnappers himself, Cinquata (Romain Duris), who finally gives in to helping the boy escape, with very little monetary gains for himself. Once again money ‘trumps’ emotions.
One of my favourite scenes is when, to find the money for her son’s ransom, Gail tries to pawn of an antique piece given by old man Getty to her son many years ago as a priceless emotional gift. Only to realise that it was but a fake toy given to a boy to win him over. Low Cost. High Benefit!
If you’re looking for a kidnapping and rescue thriller, then watch any of Liam Neeson’s “Taken” series. This movie is not that.
If you’re looking for action (thinking that Mark Wahlberg is there) or for a movie with a super-engrossing plot, super-cool dialogues and a storyline with a climax, then watch “Departed”. This movie is not that.
Even, if you’re looking for a slick movie about money, greed, fame, corruption and interesting characters that make the movie tick, then watch “The Wolf of Wall Street”. This movie is not that either.
But if you’re looking for some powerful performances (Michelle Williams and Christopher Plummer are fabulous in playing their complex roles), against an unconventional kind of story-telling about one man’s world of money and the consequences on everyone around him, then this movie is that.
In fact, the most edge-of-the-seat moments are not around the kidnapped boy, but around waiting to see what depths of negotiation J Paul Getty is capable of, when the life of his beloved family member is at stake! Because after all, “Money is never just money; it always stands for something”
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