All the Money in the World is what you call a slow-burn type of film. In other words, it drags so much at the beginning of the film. Not to mention, the content that’s being told is a bit on the boring side too. That is if you have an interest in seeing how much of a cheap bastard John Paul Getty is even though he’s one of the richest men in history. As the film progresses, however, the film gets very intriguing.
The more the film progresses, the more the humanistic side of these characters come out. In other words, you don’t see the stupidly rich side of the family anymore. Instead what you see is the fight of a mother to save her son by any means necessary—even if it does involve dealing with her cheap father-in-law. This is where most of the drama comes from.
But the film is not only gripping, but it’s beautiful as well. Ridley Scott shoots in a lot of cities worldwide and showcases the beauty of them all. Not to mention, the production design enhances the characteristics of these characters. The strong, dark, and empowering look surrounding John Paul Getty displays what kind of empire Gail Harris has to deal with. In contrast, the Italian countryside displays the reasoning behind the kidnapping of John Paul Getty III.
Despite the controversy involving the horrific acts by Kevin Spacey, Christopher Plummer does a tremendous job playing John Paul Getty on such short notice. He embodies the ruthlessness and coldness of the character. You can see that despite the ruthlessness, Plummer shows a calculating look in his eyes. After all, there’s a reason that Getty is richest people in history. People questioned how Plummer got an Oscar nomination after a month’s worth of work, but it’s clear that he deserves it.
Michelle Williams holds her own to Plummer as well. She is the true hero of the story and she carries the film beautifully. Not only does she convey a wide array of emotions in the film but she has such a fierceness to her too. She brings out all of the various layers of her character.
Mark Wahlberg is still Mark Wahlberg in this film. The way that he delivers his lines is similar to the way he plays his other films. Although it is a bit refreshing that he’s playing a character that’s different than what we’ve seen.
Overall, All the Money in the World is a beautifully fantastic and well-acted film. Even though it starts off slowly, it’s a gripping tale about a mother’s struggle to save her kidnapped son.
Movie Rating: 4/5 atoms
Video
All the Money in the World hits Blu-ray with a 1080P MPEG-4 AVC encoded video and a 2.39:1 aspect ratio. The first thing to note is that the contrast is really high here. This is an issue with the video though but it’s more of a director’s choice. Regardless, this stylized choice makes the whites really bright and blacks really dark. Also, at no point does this high contrast situation causes any blooming or crushing in the video. Although this video isn’t an Ultra HD Blu-ray, the video is incredibly crisp and clear. The colors are saturated quite nicely too. The bold or natural-looking colors equally look good. The skin tones also look true to their natural complexion too. Overall, this is a great video release by Sony Home Entertainment.
Video Rating: 4.5/5 atoms
Audio
All the Money in the World hits Blu-ray with a DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track. Although this film to be heavy on dialogue, there’s a surprising amount of immersion in this mix too. For one thing, the atmospheric effects fill the soundstage fully immersing you in the scene. The effects also pan around the soundstage seamlessly and accurately. Not to mention, the score envelopes fills the entire soundstage whenever there’s a cease in the action. Even with all of this immersion, the dialogue is still audible on all channels. It’s both clear and well-defined. Overall, this is a great audio mix.
Audio Rating: 4.5/5 atoms
Special Features
All the Money in the World contains the following special features:
- Deleted Scenes
- Ridley Scott: Crafting a Historical Thriller
- Hostages to Fortune: The Cast
- Recast, Reshot, Reclaimed
The special features in this release are full of standard talking head featurettes. Although the featurette is titled “Ridley Scott: Crafting a Historical Thriller,” it’s actually more of a behind-the-scenes featurette. “Crafting a Historical Thriller” has a lot of interviews with various members of the cast and crew. “Hostages to Fortune” is a standard featurette where actors talk about their roles.
The most interesting featurette, however, is “Recast, Reshot, Reclaimed” which, as you might expect, about the recasting of Kevin Spacey with Christopher Plummer. The featurette shows the amount of work done to reshoot Kevin Spacey’s scenes. Although they never speak of Spacey’s name, they do talk about the incident and how the everyone dealt with it. Lastly, the deleted scenes are not interesting at all. They’re either short scenes or unneeded.
Special Features Rating: 2/5 atoms
Overall, All the Money in the World could’ve been a disaster after the Kevin Spacey controversy. However, through the sheer acting prowess of Christopher Plummer, the film ended up as a fantastic thriller. The video and audio presentations are superb but the special features are as generic as they can get.
Overall Rating: 4/5 atoms
This Blu-ray was reviewed using a retail/advance copy/unit provided by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
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