ATMITW starts thrillingly with director Ridley Scott sweeping us back and forwards through time and around the world from Morocco to Saudi Arabia and New York and back to set up the details of the famous Getty kidnapping of 1973, but after an hour, when the movie goes back to square one and Michelle Williams' and Christopher Plummer's impressive performances become strained and repetitive through their having nothing new to do, it becomes clear that what we are watching is akin to the chess game that Plummer's Getty is momentarily seen playing by himself - no amount of lavish period Italian detail can hide the fact Scott is treading water and using exposition, nebulous developments and inconsistent characterisation to protract to epic length a stalemate.
★★★☆☆
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