All the Money in the World

There weren't very many movies this year that I was excited about seeing on Christmas Day. Even less ones that I would be able to convince my sister to see with me. I'm fine with going to movies alone, but on Christmas Day I generally want to go with family and/or friends. Plus we had to see one that didn't start too late, since Em had to be to work the next day at 5 a.m.

We settled on All the Money in the World, the story of the kidnapping of the grandson of John Paul Getty, richest person in the world, in the 1970s. Turns out being rich doesn't preclude one from being a completely terrible person, as Getty doesn't want to pay the ransom. He makes a semi-good point that if he pays this ransom, it puts his other 14 grandchildren at risk. However, he continues to be completely awful when negotiating with his former daughter-in-law, requesting things that no normal human being would.

The film starts out a little slow, and I was concerned my nephews would be bored and Em would fall asleep. But then it picked up some steam and was rather suspenseful. There are several tense scenes with the abductors and their abductee, so much so that I may have said words out loud to the screen. The film ends on a weird and highly improbable set piece (turns out that was all made up by the filmmakers).

However, the performances are all stellar - particularly Michelle Williams as the mom of the abducted, and Christopher Plummer as Getty, who came to the film after it had already wrapped to replace Kevin Spacey. If you're looking for a smart, suspenseful thriller give this one a go.