Entre Segredos e Mentiras

All Good Things (2010)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Decent drama about real estate heir David Marks (Ryan Gosling) who goes against his father's (Frank Langella) wishes by marrying a young woman (Kirsten Dunst) who doesn't come from the same background. The young couple start off just fine but David's personal and mental issues start to wreck the marriage and before long the wife is missing. Nearly twenty-years pass and someone decides to open the case back up after David has been connected to a couple other crimes. ALL GOOD THINGS features an interesting story based on a true story and it contains some very good performance but when the end credits started I couldn't help but think that all of the good things had been wasted. We can start off with the good stuff and you certainly have to look straight at the performances. Gosling once again turns in a very strong performance as the mentally troubled Marks. I thought the actor did a very good job at playing the troubled character without having to go with familiar bits and pieces to show how "troubled" he actually is. Gosling plays the part mostly silent and I thought this was an effective decision. Dunst also comes off extremely good and I'd dare say that she steals the film. I thought she was quite believable early on as the sweet girl who thinks she has finally reached her dreams. The actress is even better towards the end of the movie when she starts to become abused and begins to fear for her safety. I thought Dunst played the abused part very well and she was quite believable. Langella can always be counted on for a good performance and he really gets to shine here as the rather troubled father trying to help his son. The supporting cast includes some fine work by Philip Baker Hall, Michael Esper, Kristen Wiig and Lily Rabe. The biggest problem I had with the story was the direction, which just seemed all over the place. There's a lot of psychological stuff going on here but it never really jumps off the screen. While watching the movie I couldn't help but wonder what someone like a young Brian DePalma would have done with the material. Another major issue was the screenplay. This is still an unsolved case so it should go without saying that not ever question is answered but at the same time I couldn't help but feel that I left the movie not knowing anything about the lead character. About the half way point in the film Dunst tells Gosling that she doesn't know anything about him and I couldn't help but agree. It's hard to know if this was meant to be some sort of character study because if it was then we don't get to know David. Was it supposed to just be a crime picture? If so then there's really not enough questions asked about what happened. ALL GOOD THINGS is worth watching if you're fans of the cast but if you want to know about the real case then it's probably best that you get a documentary.

Let me begin with the acting. Very strong and good acting from all the major players on this film. Something you could expect, when you read the cast list. The story is decent too, but you might feel there is something missing (or maybe it was just me). Especially if you have seen similar movies.

The story evolves more or less linear (so you probably will be able to spot where this is heading), so it will mostly depend on your view on the subject and how much you like the actors in it. Again I liked both, but I think there is something missing, that I cannot really put my finger on, but I can feel it's absence. I know it sounds abstract, but I can still recommend the movie nevertheless

This is not a bad movie at all, but you should watch the documentary "The Jinx" and get the true story. I didn't connect the two untill I watch this movie the second time, but this is made over the life and story of Robert Durst.

Both Ryan Gosling and Kirsten Dunst play their roles very well, and there is an evil vibe to the movie - it never really shows any dull moments. Andrew Jarecki did a good job directing this, but a much better job directing "The Jinx", and the tension is so much better and much scarier. And of course have a huge flip side - but enough of that here ;-) Watch it instead!

Greetings again from the darkness. Who among us isn't intrigued by a real life "unsolved" murder mystery? Throw in a very wealthy New York real estate family, a never-discovered body, an executed friend, and a horrible childhood trauma and it is certain to draw the attention of filmmaker Andrew Jarecki. Jarecki's film "Capturing the Friedmans" won numerous awards and is among the best documentaries ever made. He has a knack with dark family secrets.

In the film, Ryan Gosling plays David Marks, disenchanted son of Real Estate mogul Sanford Marks (a powerful Frank Langella), who witnessed the grisly suicide of his mother when he was very young. David meets the energetic and affectionate Katie (Kirsten Dunst) and the two dreamers escape Daddy's clutches and head to Vermont to open a health food store. Finally wilting under pressure from Sanford, the couple returns to the city and David joins the family business. The good things are soon to end.

Since much of the real life story is still a mystery, Jarecki does a nice job in assembling pieces from the trial records. Along the way, we meet David's friend Deborah Lehrman (Lilly Rabe), an acclaimed writer who seems to always be there for David ... as he is for her. We witness the transformation of David from loving husband to mentally disturbed murder suspect.

Jarecki gives us some guidance on what might have happened and how the plan could have been executed, but we'll never know for sure. What we do know is that there was not much happiness associated with this family, despite the wealth and 42nd Street real estate holdings.

The acting in the film is tremendous. Gosling, Dunst and Langella are top notch. Yes, Ms. Dunst provides what is easily her best screen performance ever. Support work from Lily Rabe, Phillip Baker Hall, Nick Offerman and Kristen Wiig is all strong and believable. This one will give you the creeps ... and rightly so.

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.