One of Los Angeles’ most famous museums, the Getty Museum, features an impressive collection of art exhibits from the Middle Ages to the present day. Those who visit it have a different impression from other museums, since the presence of artistic works from so many different places and times seems more like a personal collection than an exhibition made by traditional curators. This is because the Getty Museum is exactly an old personal collection of Jean Paul Getty, considered in 1966 by Guinness the richest man in the world. With the money from his oil company, Getty invested in the purchase of important artifacts, especially from Greece and Rome (some say he believed to be the reincarnation of the Roman emperor Hadrianus). Thus, many of the artifacts were not originally intended for the museum, but rather the Getty house.
Such a rich and extravagant man is usually accompanied by peculiar and curious stories, and this is no different for him. And it’s the most tragic part of your story that All the Money in the World counts. Living life as Scrooge’s character from Charles Dickens’s short story “A Christmas Carol,” Getty protects every dollar and penny aggressively, even with billions of dollars. Unlike this character, however, Getty gives importance to his family, as long as they conform to their desires.
So when his son needs money and goes with his wife and son to Italy (where Getty decided to live), the billionaire welcomes them. However, the search for earnings continues. He puts his grandson, John, to read letters from people begging for money, and denies requests in a cold and direct manner, even when these people ask him for illness or other serious problems. This way of dealing with your fortune gives us a clue to what can happen if your family acts contrary to expectations.
His son, also called John, played by Andrew Buchan, becomes addicted and betrays the woman Gail Harris (Michelle Williams). She then decides to seek a divorce and gets custody of her little son by saying she wants just that and no money. Getty does not understand how the daughter-in-law does this, and thinks she hides some trump card that he can not understand. Thus, Getty attempts to detach himself from both his daughter-in-law and his grandson.
However, this whole picture gets more complicated when his grandson is abducted by Italian kidnappers who want millions of dollars to return the boy to the family. And the film focuses precisely on the unique and eccentric way that Getty handles the situation, always trying to negotiate even with his family. The main character of the film, then, of course, is Gail, the daughter-in-law of Getty who now needs to convince the billionaire art collector to give the money to the family she wanted to forget.
The film shows both the Getty side and the side of Gail, his grandson and even the kidnappers, creating a very interesting dynamic in which passion for art, love of family and attachment to money create obstacles against the simple solution of the problem. Played by Christopher Plummer, the character Jean Paul Getty manages to incorporate all these passions and conflicts in a film in which Getty remembers Scrooge.
(This article original language is portuguese. This translation was made with Google Translate)