• After first blush in the theater I walked away extremely impressed with both Michelle Williams (who, like back in 2008-2011 looks to be on a roll again) and Christopher Plummer. Wahlberg is bad and miscast. That’s the fault of Ridley Scott and I wasn’t blown away by the photography (the pic above is gorgeous) from Scott and normally I am. Perhaps that will change with a closer look but after first viewing I don’t have it as a major achievement for Scott
  • Getty (Plummer) is a great character and Plummer nails it–
  • Like Welles Kane he’s a tycoon and a collector. He’s jaded and the embodiment of greed. A great villain. Williams’ Gail Harris (great almost Kennedy-like dialect that Williams nails) is worn down by this horrific event. She wears it so well as an actress. Poor Wahlberg (who I like in other things quite often) is just an empty suit here.
  • Williams is one of our great actresses. She wears the stress of the situation and shows a physical and emotional transformation. The scene where she finds out that a gift from Plummer’s Getty is a fake is a tremendous scene
  • Great line from the “Artery” review saying “there are still days before this movie opens—still time to replace Wahlberg with Clive Owen or Fassbender”- haha. So true- how good would Clive Owen be in this?
  • The shots of Saudi Arabia just aren’t enough for me. Perhaps there were more when this movie starred Kevin Spacey before the controversy (he was replaced, last minute by Plummer and they shot this in a very short window—pretty amazing). Scott is transfixed with Lean so I was hoping for some more beautiful shots of that desert
  • The film in the opening hops around sloppily from different eras and time frames and in at least one occasions forgets to put the title. This smacks of an 80 year old director who isn’t really paying attention to every details like he did 30 years ago (Eastwood and Woody Allen have had some of this recently)
  • It’s 30 minutes too long
  • Recommend but won’t be near my top 10 of 2017

 

2.0 viewing July 2018

  • I do love the black and white Rome opening (pairing two tracking shots) that ends on the fountain– has to remind you of La Dolce Vita and Fellini– the Paparazzi (everywhere) later does as well clearly
  • musical cues a little on the nose at least in one instance with “The Zombies” song “Time of the Season” with “What’s your name? Who’s your daddy?”
  • at parts it’s almost like Wahlberg is in another film or has a different writer he’s so bad
  • certainly a recommend