All Good Things'

'All Good Things' (R) (2 stars)

Writers: Marcus Hinchey and Marc Smerling
Director: Andrew Jarecki
Staring: Ryan Gosling, Kirsten Dunst, Frank Langella, Phillip Baker Hall, Lily Rabe, Nick Offerman, Kristen Wiig

I really like movies about unsolved mysteries based on real events, movies like "Reversal of Fortune". That Barbet Schroeder classic is one of the best movies of that genre. "All Good Things" has an interesting story and a compelling first half but the second half of the movie is a mess. The movie tells the true life story of David and Katie Marks. David has a rich family and his father Sanford Marks is perplexed when David marries Katie. He think she is beneath his family but grows to like her, even more than David after a while. David tries to move Katie to the countryside to run a health food store but money problems bring David back into his father's shady family business. David and Katie grow apart a little and David starts to act weird, maybe because he hates being stuck with his father. Katie then disappears and everyone wonders if Mark killed her. I like the performances by Ryan Gosling as Mark and Kirsten Dunst as Katie, actually this is Dunst's best performance. Ryan Gosling is always amazing, he and Joseph Gordon Levitt are now taking over for Heath Ledger. Gosling is always daring and outstanding and he is very good here but the offbeat nature of the character makes this performance hard to embrace.

The first half of the movie is very good as it builds up the characters and goes deep in showing family members on both sides. I really loved watching Dunst here, she makes us care for her character and it is a measured, subtle performance. Gosling has the harder part because his character is aloof and self contained. There is great support by Nick Offerman, Kristen Wiig, Lily Rabe and Frank Langella in small roles. The movie takes place between 1971 and 2002 and I like the movie's atmosphere during time changes and the score is great. The movie is interesting but actually when Dunst leaves and Katie disappears the movie crumbles. We see the Mark character live with a much older man and see him dress in drag. I guess dressing like a woman hides him from others and maybe even himself. As the movie gets weirder and darker I lost interest and the movie is then a mixture of bad scenes, unintentionally funny ones and awkward story developments.

The movie is directed by Andrew Jarecki who is a very great choice to direct a movie like this. Jarecki's first film was the powerful documentary "Capturing the Friedman's" which dealt with strange and dark family secrets like this movie does. It is the same kind of subject matter but with a fiction film Jarecki has lost focus. Some documentary film makers strike out with their first fiction films, just look at Michael Moore and his "Canadian Bacon" movie. Maybe Jarecki has a great fiction film in him but this isn't it. I do love what he does with the first half and getting Dunst's best work but the second half is not that solid. There are many things to admire in this movie and be intrigued by but by the end I didn't care about Mark and the movie doesn't make us miss Katie.