Sony Pictures Entertainment 2 hours 12 minutes R
This is one tense, powerful, film that is one of the big surprises of the season. There’s been as much drama behind the scenes making this film as there is in the film itself. This is Michelle Williams’ movie all the way. She shows the frustration being married to a Getty without power or money, having her son kidnapped with no way to get the money to pay the ransom to get him back, and, even worse, dealing with her belligerent father-in-law who has all the money in the world and is, indeed, the richest man in the world. This may be her best role yet.
He is such a control freak, he won’t pay a dime to help the grandson he actually has a great deal of affection for. He’s just an eccentric, evil, power/money-hungry, manipulative, nasty SOB. Plummer plays the part convincingly with ease.
Director Ridley Scott was done with the film, and the trailer with Keven Spacey was already out there. But the shocking sexual allegations against Spacey made it necessary to find an actor, at the very last minute, to replace him as J. Paul Getty. He was the mean, rich octogenarian who repeatedly refused to come up with the ransom money to release his kidnapped namesake grandson, Paul Getty III.
It took a Wonder Woman, well, actually, the Director of that film, to secretly assist getting the actor to replace Spacey . Patty Jenkins is working on One Day She’ll Darken, a series for TNT. She put out a casting call, “Patty Jenkins is looking for a 90-year-old guy.”Little did anyone know that the guy would turn out to be the actor Scott originally wanted to play the stingy billionaire, Christopher Plummer.
Plummer stepped in and Michelle Williams and Mark Wahlberg flew back to Europe for 10 days of re-shoots just a month before the release date. The cost of the added production was $10 million dollars. There was a lot of doubt the director would be able to pull this off, but he did, with flying colors. There is no way to tell the elder Getty could have been played by anyone else. No fudging putting Plummer in single shots so it looks like he was pasted in. It all looks as it was meant to be.
The story is adapted from John Pearson’s book “Painfully RichThe Outrageous Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Heirs of J. Paul Getty. Screenwriter David Scarpa has embellished some of the events adding action scenes with shootouts. Scarpa describes his characterization of Getty as almost a caricature of wealth and greed somewhat like Mr. Burns from The Simpsons. He’s decidedly worse and was much more despicable saying that art and money were way more reliable than family. The production detail showing the vast collection of fabulous art and artists shows his only true love was acquiring things. The scene with him clutching a masterpiece towards the end reminded us of Rosebud in Citizen Kane.
He disowned his son, Gail’s husband, who was truly messed up from alcohol and drugs. The scene where Getty summons his son to Italy appearing to magnanimously give him a job is chilling. Getty Sr. tries to be welcoming but it’s all so awkward and uncomfortable.
Little Paul does a little bonding with his grandfather, but when he gets older, gets into drugs and trouble, too. When he’s kidnapped, he’s like a frightened rabbit. Charlie Plummer plays the weak teen who doesn’t seem to get what’s happening to him. He’s just lost in the part. He’s kidnapped by Italian minor league criminals who would, after several months, sell the boy to the Mafia.The thugs who jail him are pretty stupid forgetting to cover their faces so he can identify them. In the movie, he forges a bit of a bond the spokesman who makes the ransom demands.
You end up kind of liking the spokesman for the Italian kidnappers, called “Cinquanta” played effectively by Romain Duris. But his character becomes too sympathetic and is conveniently in the right place at the right time to help the boy. He is almost too important to the end of the film. The family who actually carried out the kidnapping is not happy with the movie and was trying to make their own version to clear their name. But they didn’t have the financing and their story may never be seen.
Mark Wahlberg plays Fletcher Chase, the smart security expert working for Mr. Getty, but trying to help Gail get her son back. He’s the level headed arbitrator between the two but seen more trying to help the frightened Mom. In actuality, the real Chase was not as effective an almost botched getting the kid back.
Getting the vital scenes with Plummer shot on short notice was key to survival of the film. Williams, Plummer and Scott all deserve praise for saving it with the re-shoot. Expectations were lowered with all of the controversy surrounding the production, but this film exceeds those expectations by a mile. The off screen machinations play as much of a thriller as those on screen. Ridley Scott pulled a rabbit out of a hat just in the nick of time.
