LEAN ON PETE

Charlie Plummer     Travis Fimmel     Steve Buscemi     Chloe Sevigny     Steve Zahn     Alison Elliott

     At first in this story, Charley (Plummer) appears to be a hapless teenager whose mother has disappeared and whose father Ray (Fimmel) womanizes (“The best women have all been waitresses at some point.”), makes enemies, and hasn’t much of an idea about how to parent, although it is clear that he loves Charley.  Quietly appealing, Charley clearly has some sense of responsibility as he realizes money is tight in the family and looks for a job.  He happens upon the Portland horserace track and Del (Buscemi), a grumbling horse trainer and quarter horse owner who puts the few horses he has left onto the track, and who takes a chance on Charley.  He hires him for a day to see how well he can do, then takes him on for a little longer when he sees that Charley is different from “most teenagers nowadays” in that he’s an able and willing worker.

     Del is a colorful, cantankerous type who forbids people around him to talk very much—especially if they get into personal topics.  Yet, he manages to find out that Charley has not been taught much in the way of manners, doesn’t have a mother, and lives with his father.  That’s about all he wants to know, but it does make him at least slightly sympathetic toward the boy.

     Despite the jockey Bonnie’s (Sevigny) warning Charley not to think of the horses as pets, he does get attached to the horse “Lean on Pete”, a not very good racer who might eventually be sold to someone in Mexico for its meat.  Charley does his best to see that doesn’t happen in all the ways he can think of, but it looks like the inevitable is very near.  

    Charley has had major losses in his life, and when he experiences another one, he decides he can fulfill two purposes in saving Pete and in finding the woman Margie (Elliott) who was a mother-figure to him long before.  The last he heard, she lives in Wyoming, so he has a some distance to go to find her.  He sees no other way out for him and Pete.

     Most of the story is about that journey and the tremendous degree of determination and fortitude Charley brings to bear on his situation.  A fine balance is maintained between Charley’s appealing personality (a number of people along his way reach out to help him) and pure and simple bad luck, mean people, and the limitations of anyone this age. 

     The drama is well told by British Director Andrew Haigh (45 Years) with fully formed characters and keeping up the suspense with only a slight slow-down in the middle.      Plummer does an extraordinarily fine job of giving a realistic view of this unusual teen as he did as wealthy J. Paul Getty’s grandson in All the Money in the World. Critical roles played by Steve Buscemi, Chloe Sevigny, Steve Zahn, and Alison Elliott round out the cast to make this an independent film well worth going out of your way to see.

A boy growing up in life without a niche is determined to find one, one way or another.

Grade:  B+                                                By Donna R. Copeland

ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD

Christopher Plummer     Michelle Williams     Mark Wahlberg     Charlie Plummer     Timothy Hutton

   OPENING CHRISTMAS DAY!

    The film begins on the streets of Rome in the evening, and Paul (Charlie Plummer) is outside strolling among the women who are inviting, but when they see his age, they tell him to go home.  Even though he is a sixteen, he looks even younger, with bright blue eyes and an innocent expression.  Still, “I can take care of myself”, he replies with quiet confidence.  And as immediate disproof of that claim, he is grabbed and whisked into a blue Volkswagen van, which speeds off.  The statement becomes even more ironically prescient when it becomes clear that he has been kidnapped and held for ransom—17 million dollars.

  Thus begins a stellar struggle between his mother Gail Getty (Williams) and his grandfather, J. Paul Getty (Christopher Plummer), the richest man in the world, who stubbornly refuses to pay the ransom, despite his wealth, retorting that with his 14 grandchildren if he paid for one’s ransom, he would have to pay for 13 more of them.  He is a notorious modern-day Scrooge, who periodically delivers mantras about money (e.g., “There is very little in life worth paying full price for”) and is known for his merciless haggling over even low sums.  He is eccentric in his tastes, as well as in his complete preoccupation with himself.

     But one of the most entertaining aspects of this film is seeing Gail, his daughter-in-law, resembling him more than does his own son, her husband.  She is a fair match in making deals with him that ultimately win, despite his vast resources and personal cunning.  It’s a delight to see her negotiate with him during her divorce, but even more, later, during the kidnapping-ransom process.

     All the Money in the World recounts the well-publicized event when J. Paul Getty’s grandson was kidnapped in 1973.  Getty’s recalcitrance in paying the ransom was covered by the news media, and tidbits about his chintziness, such as having pay telephones in his mansion for guests, was in the newspapers.  (This is noted in the film in a light-hearted moment for the viewers, but exasperating in reality to Gail.)  Ridley Scott and the writer David Scarpa (based on a book by John Pearson) have made it an exciting romp with lots of tension and suspense, as well as demonstrating for us the realities of a kidnapping situation [perhaps prompting discussions about the current U.S. policy of refusing to negotiate with political kidnappers].  It diverges from the real story to some extent in the interest of dramatization and thrill, and it cuts back and forth between the past and the present and different parts of the globe, creating some disorientation for the viewer.

     Michelle Williams is a wonder as a character who is sharp and ever creative in managing an eccentric billionaire’s sometimes bizarre machinations and paradoxes.  One example is his distaste for children except as possessions and as an extension of himself, and fighting with Gail for custody of his grandchildren.  Inserted into the film as a last-minute replacement for Kevin Spacey, Christopher Plummer demonstrates his acumen by showing full embodiment of the Getty character. 

This is a thriller, highlighting a wealthy man’s eccentricities.

Grade:  B+                                    By Donna R. Copeland