All the Money in the World Page #4

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PAUL:

Must be eighty stories at least.

How many stories is it, Mom?

GAIL:

I don't know, darling. An awful lot

of stories.

PAUL:

What are we looking for, Mom?

Gail puts her sunglasses back on.

GAIL:

Your grandfather.

INT. APARTMENT -- LIVING ROOM -- NIGHT

JOHN PAUL JR:

I've never even met the man.

JOHN PAUL GETTY II (known in the family as "Big Paul") isyoung, bearded and handsome, his feet propped up on the wantads on the coffee table before him.

JOHN PAUL JR (CONT'D)

You know he refused to pay my mothera nickel of child support.

9.

Big Paul climbs out of his chair and digs around inside thedesk drawers. The apartment is warm, bohemian, filled withpaintings and books and music on the record player.

JOHN PAUL JR (CONT'D)

When I was a boy, I would send myfather letters. "Dear Daddy, how Iwish I could meet you. I'll be

waiting for you at the baseballdiamond," that sort of thing.

(a beat)

You know what he sent back?

He hands Gail a letter. It's in little-boy handwriting, onlined paper -- but marked up with red ink.

JOHN PAUL JR (CONT'D)

He mailed it back with the spellingcorrected. Nothing else.

GAIL:

He is your father, that's got tocount for something, Paul, the rentis due and Christmas is coming.

JOHN PAUL JR:

What would you have me do, Gail?

Accost him on the street?

GAIL:

We write him a letter and ask for a

job. Any job. And this time, we'llget the spelling right.

Gail goes to his chair, sits on his lap, and kisses him. He

looks up at her:
she's not an easy woman to say no to.

JOHN PAUL JR:

You were never meant to be poor,

Gail. I know that.

GAIL:

We're not poor. We're broke. There's

a difference.

JOHN PAUL JR:

I don't want to be an oil man.

GAIL:

I don't want you to either. I love

you the way you are. All we need is

enough to get by, but we're notgetting by.

JOHN PAUL JR:

I'm sorry, Gail.

10.

GAIL:

I'm tired of struggling. I'm readyfor a different kind of life.

Big Paul gets up, picks up the bottle of Chianti from thecoffee table, and goes to the bedroom. We HOLD on Gail.

INT. APARTMENT -- LIVING ROOM -- NIGHT

Gail sets her husband's Smith-Corona down on the carpet.

She inserts a clean page into the carriage.

GAIL (V.O.)

Dear Dad -- Father -- For years Istruggled to understand why you keptyour distance. Now I know you weregiving me a chance to prove myself,

on my own, free from the shadow ofyour achievements -- no, great -

(backspace, retypes)

-- immense achievements. I understand

now what a sacrifice that must have

been for you.

She kneels before the typewriter, a pretty witch conjuringspirits.

GAIL (V.O.) (CONT'D)

Now that I am a man, I have nothingleft to prove, except to you. Let

me prove myself to you, Father.

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