An Ironically Named Film

Compelled by curiosity over its cast, I recently watched the 2010 film All Good Things. I knew little of its plot, aside from the fact that it was a mystery-thriller of some kind.

It turns out that the movie is a dramatized story based rather closely on the real life tale of Robert Durst. He's the son of a real estate magnate whose wife went missing under circumstances suspicious enough to be provocative, but lacking in the hard evidence needed to make an arrest. The movie takes many true facts from Durst's life, projects them onto a differently named character, and then extrapolates a version of "what really happened."

Not knowing the content of the movie in advance made it tougher to watch in some ways, but more interesting in others. Very early on, the film establishes a meta-narrative, in which an older Durst is being questioned -- apparently on a witness stand in court -- about the events unfolding before the audience. The questions guide the action, but pick and choose the moments that are to be telegraphed. It's often revealed that bad things are about the happened, without the audience being told exactly what they'll be. This immediately pulls you in to the film, and makes you eager to see where the story is headed.

The problem is, it takes what feels like ages to get there. The film runs barely more than an hour-and-a-half, yet spends more than half that time gradually unspooling the entire relationship history of the main character and his wife, from their first meeting, through their degrading marriage, and only after a long while the events that any synopsis of the plot would list front and center. What begins as an intriguing slow burn has become a tedious slog long before anything begins to "happen" in the movie.

By the time the final credits roll, it's clear there hasn't been any single narrative throughline to guide you through the film. It's not a story about why the main character is so disturbed, because too much time has been spent telling things from the perspective of his wife. It's not a tale about the truth of the disappearance, because more than half the movie doesn't even address that. The story is simply all over the place.

As I said, it was the actors that made me even want to check out the film in the first place... and they are good, at least. Ryan Gosling stars as the ringer for Robert Durst, and he gives a performance both tense and intense. Kirsten Dunst is his wife, and she effectively makes you feel the fear of her character as things begin to unravel on her. Veteran Frank Langella plays the impossible-to-please, criminal father of the main character, at once familiar and shades worse than any aloof father you may have known in life. Perhaps most curious of all are some minor, secondary characters played by actors traditionally known for comedy: Kristen Wiig and Nick Offerman.

Still, this is a case where good performances certainly don't make a good movie. The deliberate pace ends up being a detriment, not an asset. And the ultimate destination isn't anything great enough to redeem the journey. I give the movie a D. You'd probably never heard of it before this review, but if you had, skip it. All Good Things is quite the opposite.