Director: Andrew Jarecki
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Kirsten Dunst, Frank Langella
Year: 2010
All Good Things might be an alright movie, a moderately entertaining time spent in front of your TV, but it is also probably an example on how not to make a true crime film. Done before our obsession with the genre, it’s a movie that meanders through history with boring, plodding steps that doesn’t do the real horror of the situation justice, and doesn’t reach all the dark corners that it could have. Just because it passes with an average grade doesn’t make it something to duplicate; I imagine filmmakers and documentarians could use this as a starting point for their own projects, taking them much further and with much more skill.
Based on a true story, this is the tale of “David Marks”, the eldest son of an extremely wealthy family, owners of half of Times Square, with a family dream to turn NYC into a shining beacon of entertainment. David never wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps, live the high rise life, but he ended up there nonetheless, after seeing his mother commit suicide, after getting married to a nice girl, after failing to make it on his own; falling back into the arms of money in comfortable, but it doesn’t necessarily mean happiness. In fact, David became increasing unhappy, unhinged, and violent, until one day his lovely wife went missing. The Marks dynasty would become public scrutiny, and David a prime suspect, but some crimes go unpunished, and some stories are too twisted to be believed.
This is the true crime story of Robert Durst, who you may have heard of, the real estate heir who escaped justice for years, who died last year, actually, before he could be tried for all the crimes authorities believe he may have committed. It’s a fascinating tale, and really does make for an interesting movie, some of the most important events and new proceedings happening after the film came out, after a docuseries in 2015 and the subsequent charges that were laid upon Durst in relation to his wife’s disappearance in the 80s. Fascinating, but not entirely played out well by a film that seemed not to know what it had. Perhaps, and I love Gosling, the main leads simply weren’t ready for roles like this; neither Ryan or Kirsten seemed up to the challenge of playing characters this complex. Add in a very heavy-stepping plot & timeline, a very slow display of evidence & events, and you’ve got yourself a film that is a little boring at times, a little badly acted too often, and ends up a cool curiosity, not a great film.
My rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆