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Ryan Gosling, Kirsten Dunst, Frank Langella, Philip Baker Hall, Lily Rabe ... see more see more... , Jeffrey Dean Morgan , Mia Dillon , Michael Esper , Tom Riis Farrell , Diane Venora , Nick Offerman , Kristen Wiig , Stephen Kunken , John Cullum , Maggie Kiley , Liz Stauber , Marion McCorry , Tom Kemp , Trini Alvarado , Bruce Norris , Francie Swift , David Margulies , Glenn Fleshler , Stephen Singer , Francis Guinan , Ellen Sexton , William Jackson Harper , Ashlie Atkinson , Donna Bullock , Pamela Tyson , Julie Moran

Inspired by the most notorious missing person's case in New York history, ALL GOOD THINGS is a love story and murder mystery set against the backdrop of a New York real estate dynasty in the 1980s. Pr... read more read more...oduced and directed by Andrew Jarecki (director of the Academy Award-nominated doc Capturing the Friedmans and producer of Catfish), the film was inspired by the story of Robert Durst, scion of the wealthy Durst family. Mr. Durst was suspected but never tried for killing his wife Kathie who disappeared in 1982 and was never found. The film stars Ryan Gosling, Kirsten Dunst and Frank Langella as the powerful patriarch, and captures the emotion and complexion of this real-life unsolved mystery. -- (C) Magnolia

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38% liked it

35,265 ratings

Critics

32% liked it

99 critics

R, 1 hr. 41 min.

Directed by: Andrew Jarecki

Release Date: December 3, 2010

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DVD Release Date: March 29, 2011

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Flixster Reviews (1,094)

  • romy861
    March 24, 2012
    romy861
    Good, but had an unsatisfying ending. (which obviously can't be helped since it was based on a true story and the truth was never found out there either. I so hope Katie ran away and disappeared, but sadly it seems pretty likely she was murdered.
    Kirsten Dunst and Ryan Gosling ... read moreare both great here. I did feel that Kirsten really made this movie and it got duller once she disappeared, but still an interesting and creepy story. Really makes you pity what some women feel they have to put up with in a relationship.
  • blkbomb
    October 29, 2011
    blkbomb
    David Marks: Look at her. I swear to God, I didn't even know that people like her existed. She's perfect. 

    "The Perfect Love Story. Until It Became The Perfect Crime."

    I expected a lot from All Good Things, maybe a little too much. The story was intriguing and the film has Ryan... read more Gosling and Kirsten Dunst in it. The film is well acted by them, but their performances aren't enough to lift this film above watchable. The film is bleak and dark, and it should be, so it did get the mood right. But it was also extremely dull. I never felt suspense or even felt like director Andrew Jarecki wanted the viewer to feel anything towards the story. 

    The story is based on a true story. David is the son of a rich and successful man, but his life has been nothing great. He watched his mother jump to her death when he was seven years old and, as one would expect, it messed him up pretty severely. He meets Katie when he goes over to look at a sink leak in her apartment and they hit it off, and end up getting married. Neither of the couples families are ecstatic about the marriage, especially David's father. Then from there the plot goes from a loving couple to marital problems quickly. It never feels like the couple loved each other, even as David says how perfect Katie is.

    I wouldn't go as far as to say the movie isn't well made because it is beautifully shot and the music is great. It is just that the overall feelings one should get from watching a movie about this subject is completely missing. After watching it, I was left feeling empty about this story. It wasn't chilling, but I could tell where it should have been. I never got a real feeling that Jarecki even cared about this subject. It seemed that he was just making it to kill some time or something.

    It isn't totally worthless because nothing ever is, when it has either Gosling or Dunst. It is just disappointing because it never reaches a point where it feels like it should have gone.
  • murphmann93
    October 24, 2011
    murphmann93
    Depsite this being a very slow start, you are already captivated by the fact it is a true story. Ryan Gosling is one of my all time favourite actors and he never fails to dissapoint. He played the part perfectly and I very much enjoyed this. It still scares me that the killer is ... read morestill out there being able to live his life normally after what he's done. It also frightened me to learn that he was watching the set from a far. Very creepy.
  • paulsandberg
    October 13, 2011
    paulsandberg
    As an adaptation of a real life crime event, "All Good Things" ain't no "Reversal of Fortune". Manipulative, out of focus and disjointed, this effort is a train wreck, saved perhaps only by the menacing, yet buttoned down performance of Frank Langella who portrays the Marks' fam... read moreily patriarch.

    The screen play seems to focus on all the wrong things, showing little artsy slices of life without any buildup or any attempt to give the audience any clue as to why Ryan Gossling's heir apparent, or his wife Kirsten Dunst behave in the manner they do (other than the childhood shock Gossling receives, which should have nothing to do with his change from what appears to be a regular guy, into some misanthropic freak).

    I suppose you could take this in part as a father son drama - the dynamic is certainly there, but once again, when the emotional payoff comes, about 3/4 through the film, it seems overwrought and then gets left in the dust by the goofy last quarter which tries to tie in the court proceeding theme that begins the film.

    The film starts nicely enough, giving "home movie" footage of the Marks family and hinting at something deeper under the surface, especially concerning Gossling's mother, and as the actual film begins there is a rather nice touch of a voiceover who is obviously an attorney, asking Gossling to "start at the beginning" and relate his childhood. While this is a nice touch, I don't believe that any jury would want to sit through hours (or days) of an alleged killer's recollections and reflections on his life.

    But that backdrop gives the screenplay the opportunity to present the "facts", which, at least for a time, seem entertaining. You have Gossling as a seemingly regular guy who beholden to his father's vast fortune, is at his beck and call. He charms Dunst, who seems charming and real but somehow vague throughout, and they ultimately marry and move away from NYC and daddy's demands. They seem to have a nice, intimate, idyllic existence, but then things slide off the rails, both for the characters and the film. For reasons unexplained, Gossling succumbs to daddy's pressure and rejoins the firm in NYC. Next thing you know he's become standoffish and, as the film seems to unnecessarily focus on, both he and Dunst get into drugs - he pot and she coke.

    Gossling becomes more and more bizarre, odd and wound too tight; taken to long periods of silent brooding, followed by outbursts of rage. Dunst wails that she had never been closer to a person, yet now seems to not know him at all. Just as the pair could have told daddy to take a hike and continue their quaint country lives, Dunst could have left Gossling, but for some reason (money, the film suggests, even though that seems to run totally against the character the film presents at the beginning of the film), she stays with him... until....

    I'm not going to reveal what leads to the "case", but will comment that there are several roll your eyes in disbelief moments, some ridiculous pointless scenes and terrible pacing.

    The end result is that the film squanders its solid beginning by wallowing in a puddle of pointless scenes where you become as disconnected with the characters and the film itself as the two main characters had become to not only each other, but themselves. I for one ended up not caring what happened to any of them. Director Andrew Jarecki sure made a mess out of this one, and he can't really blame the script as he was listed as co-writer.
  • Tomassgringo
    June 28, 2011
    Tomassgringo
    There is very little that Ryan Gosling does that I do not like. He always brings a powerhouse performance. The story begins to drag a bit, but Ryan's performance kept my attention!
  • LorenzoVonMatterhorn
    June 24, 2011
    LorenzoVonMatterhorn
    "The Perfect Love Story. Until It Became The Perfect Crime."

    A love story and murder mystery based on the most notorious unsolved murder case in New York history. The original screenplay uses newly discovered facts, court records and speculation as the foundation for a st... read moreory of family, obsession, love and loss.

    REVIEW

    Here's a story that was dramatic in life and equally dramatic on paper, as a story pitch. What doesn't sound thrilling, in Hollywood terms, about a latent psychopath 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 probably a sense of 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 selling real estate.
  • jjnxn
    June 14, 2011
    jjnxn
    Good acting but poorly paced.
  • neverteaseaweasel
    June 6, 2011
    neverteaseaweasel
    It really isn't always the most prudent to typecast. I really hadn't expected much from this as it seemed to have a bit of a botched production and then failed to be picked up by any significant studio or ever recieve a proper release of any kind. It may have went straight to dvd... read more, I'm not sure. Anyway, the stars did not appear to be aligned for an amazing picture.

    And that's true, it's not amazing at all, but it isn't bad. Really, I would go so far as to say that I found it incredibly engaging and enjoyable. The story kind of jumps from genre to genre and whenever it seems like it's going one direction to does a complete 180. That kind of bugged me, but then again, how often do we all complain about films being predictable? Overall, it's enjoyable enough to watch and definitely unduly overlooked.
  • imrealgod
    May 12, 2011
    imrealgod
    Inspired from actual events, the film excels basically in direction [I guess that Andrew Jarecki chose film to documentary due to his prior (sore) experience with "Capturing The Friedmans".], screenplay, editing, and acting departments. While I was left unimpressed by Ryan Goslin... read moreg in Blue Valentine, he surely came across as a revelation here. Unfortunately, the movie isn't received as well as it's made.

    The extent to which this story is true baffles me. Strange world we live in!!!
  • stevenecarrier
    April 30, 2011
    stevenecarrier
    "All Good Things" is like a high class Lifetime movie. The juicy true story of one of New York City's most infamous unsolved mysteries is involving enough to keep your attention. The performances are uniformly great with Kirsten Dunst standing out. You have never seen her like th... read moreis before. But where the film fails is that we and the filmmakers have no idea who David Marks is. I don't think David Marks knows who he is. He is a twisted man with a twisted life that has added up to a ton of unanswered questions. A documentary on the subject would have proved much more interesting but as it stands, "All Good Things" is enticing but leaves you out in the cold.

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Critic Reviews

Peter Rainer
January 3, 2011
Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor

Director Andrew Jarecki, who made his name with the documentary Capturing the Friedmans, is less successful at limning family dysfunctionality in the fictional mode. Full Review

Rafer Guzman
January 3, 2011
Rafer Guzman, Newsday

It also feels like one man's attempt to try another in the court of cinema, or perhaps correct the course of justice itself. Full Review

J. R. Jones
December 30, 2010
J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader

The unsolved crime turns out to be less mysterious than the mind of the killer, nervily portrayed by Gosling as not evil but unaccountably empty. Full Review

Roger Ebert
December 23, 2010
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Kirsten Dunst is so good here as a woman at a loss to understand who her husband really is, and what the true nature of his family involves. Full Review

Colin Covert
December 22, 2010
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune

"All Good Things" has the eerie power of a nightmare. Full Review

Ty Burr
December 22, 2010
Ty Burr, Boston Globe

As excellent as Gosling is - and the actor conveys the stillness of the man as well as the voices screaming in his head - Dunst matches him stride for stride. Full Review

Steven Rea
December 17, 2010
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer

It's a strange, thrilling tale begrimed by bad memories, by bad deeds. Full Review

Mick LaSalle
December 16, 2010
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

Dunst is not the only person doing quality work in "All Good Things," but she is the only one worth watching. Full Review

Ann Hornaday
December 10, 2010
Ann Hornaday, Washington Post

As absorbing and detailed as "All Good Things" is, it never manages to levitate beyond tawdry movie-of-the-week voyeurism. Full Review

Joe Morgenstern
December 9, 2010
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal

The script draws insistently obvious psychological connections. Full Review

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    • Katie Marks: I've never been closer to anyone, and I don't know you at all.
    • Stanford Marks: She's never going to be one of us.
    • David Marks: I know. Isn't that great?
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  • "Here's my day so far: went to jail, lost the girl of my dreams and got my butt kicked pretty good. Still, things could be a lot worse. Oh, that's right... I'm falling to my death. Guess they can't. How did it all come to this? Well, my end starts at the beginning... The very beginning!"  Answer »
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