There were times in 2017 when it seemed like Hollywood couldn’t go a day without being rocked by a new scandal, so it’s perhaps only fitting that the year’s last wide release should be shadowed by behind-the-scenes drama. When setting out to film
All the Money in the World, his account of the real-life kidnapping that grabbed headlines in 1973 when an heir to the Getty fortune was held for ransom, director
Ridley Scott cast
Kevin Spacey as billionaire Jean Paul Getty. But when Spacey was accused of an array of sexual misconduct in late October, Scott quickly enlisted Christopher Plummer to replace him, rounding up the cast for a rapid-fire round of reshoots that somehow only bumped the movie’s release back by a few days — and even more incredibly, seem to have been seamlessly inserted into the rest of the movie. In fact, critics say Plummer’s one of the best things about
Money, which is grounded by his solid work and further enlivened by a tremendous turn from Michelle Williams as Abigail Harris, mother to the kidnapped J. Paul Getty III (
Charlie Plummer). While some scribes feel Scott and screenwriter
David Scarpa may have bitten off a little more than they could chew in terms of telling a ripping yarn while delving into timely socioeconomic subtext, the end result remains a solidly well-acted drama — and one that deserves to be seen apart from its luridly fascinating production pitfalls.
