Surely, the name of this film just lends itself to bad reviews. Like ‘All Good Things – apart from the acting, story, directing and just about everything else’ or ‘All Good Things… All bad things, more like?’ or something equally as terrible. As it happens, it is not a great film, so unleash the terrible lines.
David Marks (Ryan Gosling) is the son of real estate tycoon Sanford Marks (Frank Langella). But he doesn’t want to follow his father’s footsteps. He and his beautiful young wife, Katie (Kirsten Dunst) move to Vermont and open a health food store called All Good Things. Life is great, but then David is pressured to return to New York and follow his father’s footsteps. He’s acting pretty weird, and then his wife disappears, then suddenly it’s 20 years later, David is dressing as a woman and his best mate dies, and the spotlight is put on him for both cases.
It is based on the true story of Robert Durst and his wife Kathleen McCormack who disappeared in 1982. It’s a pretty compelling story, yet not a compelling film. This despite the strong acting, especially from Kirsten Dunst in one of the best performances I’ve seen from her. The key problem was the structure and the script – it felt as though a lot of time was put into the set up of the relationship between David and Katie, but then the disappearance and all of the acts after this seem rushed, and given how exciting this part of the story is, it’s just a waste.
ireckonthat 