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source: All Good Things

"All Good Things" provides a text-book example of the inherent weaknesses in drama projects based on real-life events. The first two-thirds of this film has a strong script coupled with excellent performances, direction and cinematography, all working harmoniously together to tell the story of a doomed love affair between David and Katie Marks. David is the eldest son of the patriarch of a wealthy and politically connected NY real estate family. His attractive facade conceals a fragile interior damaged through witnessing the violent suicide of his mother at a young age. He desires to live a simple life with the warmhearted, uncomplicated Katie, but his controlling father forces him to work in the part of the family business that hosts Times Square prostitution rackets. The internal and external pressures undermine David's stability, and the couple's marriage deteriorates into mutual distrust, substance abuse and physical assault - followed by Katie's suspicious disappearance. So far so good - but the last third of the film is a mishmash of dramatized news reports and court proceedings spiced up with some dubious speculations, which leads to a hypothetical conclusion that reeks of lawyers supervising the screenplay. Ryan Gosling and Kirsten Dunst play the two lead roles with sensitivity and skill, but their efforts can't save a film that leaves one shrugging one's shoulders at all the imagined conversations and unsubstantiated theorizing.

A disquieting thriller, complexly plotted and with numerous twists and turns which actually turns out to be fairly closely based on a real-life story in America, which kind of shoots to pieces any criticisms I had of the credibility of the narrative development here. That said, I'm not sure the time-honoured device of flash-backing from the trial of the accused David Marks, with interspersed updates as matters proceed, best serves the flow of the film. Moreover, things do take some time to get moving with too much concentration, in my opinion, on character development, especially on subsidiary characters, before Marks' strangeness starts to manifest itself, although this too is done awkwardly (off- camera conversations with himself, point-blank rejection of having a family with his living wife, peer-pressure from his father) so that I'm not sure I made the leap to psychopathy that Ryan Gosling's character actually makes. The supposed thriller sequences are done in a hackneyed manner too, with night-time filming, dark shadowy interiors and even thunderstorms outside which work against the realism striven for elsewhere. By the end, after some head-scratching about Marks' transvestism and the strange, fateful relationship he builds up with his elderly fellow- tenant, I felt the movie hadn't satisfactorily plugged the plot-holes along the way for it to flow as it should. Gosling and Kirsten Dunst are both good in the lead parts, although the shifts in character for the former, as indicated, are difficult to surmount. While Gosling plays each facet of Marks' contrasting personalities at different stages, I'm not sure he convinced this was all mixed up in one person, although that may be down to the writing. I did appreciate the sub-Herrmann use of soundtrack music, but ultimately felt this movie failed to gel in attempting to combine fact-based analysis of a psychotic Norman Bates type character with the conventions of a mainstream Hollywood psychological thriller.

Solid true crime story has the feel of real life to it in the most important part--the details. Even when the plot makes a swerve towards "oh i can't believe that's what really happened for a second" territory--its the little details and short scenes that makes it feels true to life. (i'm thinking of the scene where Kristen dunst painfully mails this evidence indicting her husband to the senator only to have him mail it back to her husband the next day--"this is family business...and none of our affair", or the quick scene of Ryan gosling writing his phone number on the boat "in case it gets lost", or the terse "Leave A Message" greeting on Gosling's hideaway's answering machine every time someone calls.) There are a lot of little things like that throughout that really make the movie pop. Yes its true that the story is yet another one about an increasingly sociopaths rich guy--and the unraveling of his life as he gets more and more paranoid, etc. We never really get to know why the main character starts to feel the way he does, beyond the standard he's upset that he's being pushed into a lifestyle he didn't want and doesn't feel the least bit appreciated by his dad bull crap. We don't ever know what's going on inside the main character's mind and its to the film's credit that it doesn't really try to generate any sympathy or likability on the main character's behalf--even if the director and Gosling gives us a slight clue or two as to what might of shaped his current mania. (based largely on the should be coasting but somehow still excellent Frank Langella's treatment of Gosling, Gosling's witnessing of his mom's death at a very early age, and his overall shift in attitude towards his life as portrayed by his non-verbal cues.) That the film succeeded in keeping my interest for its entire running time would be a good question to ask however. The two main performances are top-notch of course, you really get why both parties would be attracted to the other without ever really questioning it--you even get why Dunst would choose to stay with Gosling even after the first bits of crazy start appearing, and there's a lot more where those first bits came from. The film however is also very well directed--the pacing is perfect for this type of film, (the film begins right with the meeting between Gosling and Dunst thankfully wasting zero time on filler material before their courting) i've said before the small details that can make or break a true story are pretty perfect here, the tone of the film--straight face verging on very dry black comedy at times is very good too. When it was over, I really felt like i hadn't wasted my time watching it and that i was really absorbed by the story--however i could not quite place my finger on WHY the film was made in the first place. It was a good story with solid acting all around but the real question that you will want to ask at the end of the film remains unanswered in real life too (which may in fact be the reason the film was made but its still frustrating to ask a question that remains completely unsolved even in the true life story on which this is based.) This is however a solid film with a solid Ryan Gosling performance at the center that too few people will see and will probably go unappreciated for many years until some writer or blogger exploring his filmography years from now tries to pulls it out from obscurity as a re-discovery or whatever. The real story though really should be how Andrew Jarecki successfully made a more or less compelling feature film out of true life events. (something that too few documentary filmmakers actually manage to do even a quarter as well when they try their hands at fictional films.)

ALL GOOD THINGS – CATCH IT (Only for Kirsten Dunst) ( B- ) All Good things has only One thing good and that's "Kirsten Dunst", she is the only one who kept me glue to the movie and the moment she got lost, I kind of lost too in my mind. Kirsten Dunst really put herself out there in the movie and I think it was her best performance till date. Her portrayal of the young lover, sweet wife & sister later on turn into agonizing wife on drugs was simply startling. On the other hand Ryan Gosling was also very powerful in both young & old person but where he lost me was his portrayal of a drag. At sometimes he looked the part but most of the times it looked completely bogus. The movie has lots of problems from writing to direction & even to supporting cast. When every supporting un-known cast/character shown on the screen, it seemed like he/she is an important character though later on we even don't see or hear from that character atall. The movie lost me completely the moment Kirsten Dunst vanishing off the screen, as the movie is based upon a true story and Katie Marks (Original name: Kathleen McCormack) was never found after her disappearance. Though, the movie indicated that what had happened to her but it never fully fill out the gaps in the case. Why David Marks (Original name: Robert Durst) was let go? All the incidents happening in the movie, like beating her up in front of her family (which was incredibly weird because why her family didn't stopped him), neighbors found Kirsten Dunst all beaten up and Ryan Gosling's mental schizophrenics state of mind etc etc were depicted in the movie & those were never taken in consideration in the jury's verdict plus why Ryan Gosling was never suspected in Kirsten Dunst disappearance??? These are the questions which movie has failed to answer; I think if the director & writers were not capable of joining the evidence, they should have not made a movie on an "unsolved disappearance of Kathleen McCormack". Overall the movie is watchable because of its first 80 minutes (Kirsten Dunst) only and the last 30 minutes of the movie are completely ridiculous.

All Good Things (2010) Here's a story that was dramatic in life and equally dramatic on paper, as a story pitch. What wouldn't sound thrilling, in Hollywood terms, about a latent psychopath of a man, his aging older power hungry father, and a charming young innocent woman caught up in a struggle for happiness and wealth? And so "All Good Things" had all the right things to get going. On top of that, the three actors are all excellent in their own ways, Ryan Gosling, Frank Langella, and Kirsten Dunst, respectively. What falters is something more subtle, some combination of screen writing (that magic of turning an idea into something concrete) and direction (that hard technical and aesthetic work of pulling it all off). It turns out that the screenwriters are both first timers, and the director has one other film to his credit, so there is a sense of still figuring things out that is evident here. The movie lacks elegance, for sure, though it doesn't lack intensity at times, using well-worn but necessary tricks (girl arrives at night into dark room and man is waiting in shadows for her, etc.). Not that this is a bad movie. The story itself grows and multiplies even as the characters remain somewhat thin. The one character who get complicated is the leading man, Gosling's David Marks, the troubled son who knows he's troubled and tries to hide it and eventually cannot. You can ask of course deep questions about why this man turned so rotten, and the answer the film provides is that his father pushed him relentlessly in a dirty business rife with secrecy and power. That he didn't find salvation in the "perfect" Kirsten Dunst (who was never demanding, always supportive and loving, etc., to the point of simplicity) is part of his own tragedy. Ultimately this is a simple story about guy who, as his father said to his face, was a "weak man." And if this is a movie about a weak man being trapped by circumstances and therefore given a license to violence, it doesn't reveal or express those qualities in ways that would sway or disturb us. We are mostly reminded that it really happened, and that the guy is still out there, down South, selling real estate.

Ryan Gosling fans be warned: He is not enough of a reason to see this movie! I have no idea why Gosling would attach himself to this abysmal project. I usually love him, but this was a very repulsive character that never seemed real to me. Although Kirsten Dunst was mostly a pleasure to watch, the direction was so slooooowww and painful that I felt like committing murder myself by the end of the first act, trapped watching awful (mostly insane) characters making awful choices. Following a tedious start, with the droning voice-over of a lawyer questioning the main character, the lackluster script never improved. The repetitive, melodramatic plot just kept going from bad to worse. I very much regret wasting an evening on this.