Product Details

• Actors: Ryan Gosling, Kirsten Dunst, Frank Langella
• Directors: Andrew Jarecki
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Subtitles: Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Magnolia Home Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: March 29, 2011
• Run Time: 101 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B004H83IG4
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,783 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "All Good Things" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

About the Actor

Golden Globe Nominee Kirsten Dunst, Academy Award® Nominee Ryan Gosling and Academy Award® Nominee Frank Langella

Product Description

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. Produced 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.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

67 of 71 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Traditional Crime Docu-Drama Dressed Up To Sophisticated And Riveting Entertainment, November 15, 2010

By 

K. Harris "Film aficionado" (Albuquerque, NM) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: All Good Things (Amazon Instant Video)

If you're old enough to remember the TV landscape from about a dozen years ago, you'll remember that the airwaves were littered every week with crime stories "inspired by" or "based on" true events. This entertaining, yet exploitative, sub-genre straddling the line between thriller and docu-drama has since been shifted to cable TV for the most part and, generally, the quality of this type of film has been marred by an unnecessary camp factor. I mention this in preface to talking about the fascinating feature "All Good Things," a film by award winning documentarian Andrew Jarecki, not as a negative association--but as an incredibly positive note. "All Good Things" employs everything that has been overdone about this genre, and despite the familiarity in story telling, stands as a richly intriguing and superbly acted drama. In truth, I loved "All Good Things!"

Based on a real New York missing person's case involving a wealthy and powerful real estate family, "All Good Things" introduces us to the Marks clan. Ryan Gosling plays David Marks who has little interest or patience with the family business. Meeting a young woman, Kirsten Dunst, completely removed from the society set he's been raised in--he sees her as a possible escape. But happiness is fleeting for the couple as Gosling is eventually brought back to deal with the seedier elements in his father's empire. The couple's relationship becomes increasingly strained until Dunst disappears. Investigated, yet unsolved, what happens remains a mystery until an ambitious District Attorney 18 years later decides to pursue matters further. That's when things start to get really strange!

Of course, when you've got master actors at the top of their game--that certainly brings a welcome gravitas to the proceedings. I have, for many years, declared Ryan Gosling perhaps the best actor of his generation. Ever since he burst onto the film scene in the controversial "The Believer," Gosling has eschewed being a mainstream "star." Heck, after "The Notebook," another actor might have taken a very different career path. But Gosling, despite a couple of disappointing forays into big budget Hollywood, has remained true to his indie roots. In "All Good Things," Gosling is riveting--a socially awkward powder keg, he is strangely likable AND dangerously unhinged. It's a great, fully rounded performance. Kirsten Dunst, as his wife, hasn't been this good in years. An intriguing blend of strength and vulnerability, she becomes the heart and soul of "All Good Things." And the terrific Frank Langella is mesmerizing, and filled with oily menace, as Gosling's father.

The film is also great-looking, with its use of shadow and darkness. The score is fantastic as well--so haunting. The first two-thirds of "All Good Things" are absolutely flawless. The pairing of Dunst and Gosling and their story together is as polished and entertaining as anything you're likely to see this year. However, when the film fast forward--it does suffer by comparison. This is where the story becomes utterly bizarre. I still loved it and it is undeniably fascinating, but it lacks the dramatic tension that had so distinguished the earlier sections. All in all, though, this is sophisticated adult entertainment and highly recommended. About 4 1/2 stars. KGHarris, 11/10.

21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stranger than Fiction, December 1, 2010

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: All Good Things (Amazon Instant Video)

ALL THINGS GOOD is a polished little film based on a true story that while it may not have the visual gruesome detail of the usual thriller tropes of films, it is terrifying in its presentation of personality variations that produce a shuddering reaction on a purely intellectual level for the audience. It is both a love story and a missing persons/murder mystery based on a still unsolved case that continues to haunt New York investigators and reporters and detectives. What writers Marcus Hinchey and Marc Smerling have created from known and newly discovered facts, speculation and court records results in a psychological examination of a powerful New York family, obsession, love and loss. The film relates incidents that began in 1972 and end in 2003 and at this time the truth is still unknown. Director Andrew Jarecki uses a superb cast and a fine sense of voice-over narration to interweave the puzzling history with the gradual dissolution of each of the characters involved.

Sanford Marks (Frank Langella) is one of the wealthiest owners of Manhattan real estate, the current head of a family that has long dominated the New York scene with its power and money. Marks is aging and is relying on his son David (Ryan Gosling) to take over the family business: he sends David out to the brothels, and filthy hotels and porn houses to collect rent. David is reticent to be a part of his father's business: he is a deeply disturbed young man, having witnessed his mother's suicide leap as a child. David meets a tenant in one of the properties - Katie McCarthy (Kirsten Dunst) who longs to go to medical school but at present has no income to support that dream. The chemistry between the two is magnetic and despite David's father's objection that Katie is not of 'their kind of people', David decides to marry Katie and move to Vermont to open a Health Foods store - a move that makes the couple ectsatic, but is financed by Sanford Marks who eventually convinces David to sell his haven and move to New York to stay with the family business.

In their Manhattan home (and in their country lake front home!) the couple flourishes until Katie mentions she'd like to have children - a force that drives David back into violent behavior resulting form his witnessing his mother's suicide: David can't understand why Katie would want anything but the obvious life of wealth they enjoy. The shell is cracked and the subsequent events include Katie becoming pregnant only to be forced by David to terminate the pregnancy, Katie's disappearance after uncovering the facts about the sources of wealth of the family, David's descent into drugs and irresponsible behavior, and ultimately his leaving New York for Galveston, Texas where he lives a life disguised as a woman, his only friend being another old runaway Melvin Bump (Philip Baker Hall) who David engages to do away with a 'problem confidant' (Lilly Rabe), after which Bump is killed and dissected and tossed into the river. The murders are never solved nor is the mystery of Katie' disappearance. A trial (the source of the voice-over throughout the film has been the lawyer's interrogation of David in the year 2003) fails to resolve anything and the film ends with the message that David Marks is at present a real estate broker in Florida.

Frank Langella is superb as the heartless father who drives his family like cattle in the quest of power and wealth. Ryan Gosling offer a multifaceted performance of the deeply disturbed David and is match by Kirsten Dunst's bravura performance as Katie, the simple bright girl whose life is quashed by a powerful family's sickness. The brilliant cast, including the performances by Philip Baker Hall and Lilly Rabe - daughter of the deceased Jill Clayburgh), has excellent cameo roles by Diane Venora, Trini Alvarado, David Margulies, Nick Offerman and many more. This is a tough film to watch because at the bottom of it all is that it is true and the cases are unsolved. It makes us cringe but it is a very fine film.

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not that good, but..., February 2, 2011

By 

Andrew Ellington (I'm kind of everywhere) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: All Good Things (DVD)

This pains me, since there is something within this film that is so amazing I feel it needs to be regarded as such, but three stars, while not awful, is certainly telling to the quality of this film as a whole.

Does that make sense?

First, the movie. The film follows the true story (as much can be true in a film `inspired' by real events) of David Marks, a troubled young man looking for ways to rebel against a family that controls his every move (subconsciously, which is the best way). When David meets and falls for Katie, it seems as though his life may start to iron out. He walks away from his father `real estate' clutches and ventures off into a life all his own with Katie, but darkness erodes all happiness when David allows his father's manipulations to reel him back to New York, back into life in the Marks' family. All tumbles downhill, rather rapidly, when familial tendencies begin to separate David and Katie until, one day, Katie disappears.

For me, it is this point of the film where things start to just derail. I understand the whole `inspired by real events' angle, and so I encourage even the bizarre, but the `made for TV' way in which the films later scenes are shot take away from the terror one should feel and actually gives this film a `Lifetime' movie feeling.

The film does a 180, from decently engrossing thriller to complete disaster.

So, this leaves one thing to be discussed...the very reason for which the films first half is so stellar; Kirsten Dunst. I recently wrote an entry for my blog about the amazingness that was Kirsten Dunst in this film, and so I'm just going to quote that here (slightly doctored to reflect this review and not the article I initially wrote).

"Then we have Kirsten Dunst, who just marvels with all sorts of layered emotional relevance in `All Good Things'. Talk about a brilliant performance in a really bad film. Kirsten plays Katie Marks, a real person (come on Oscar, why aren't you biting) who disappeared, `allegedly' at the hands of her deranged husband. The one thing that Dunst's character, and performance, has (in spades) is serious emotional collapse. One blogger mentioned that you could see Kirsten visibly age as she uncovers the truth about her husband. I totally concur with this explanation of her devastatingly real performance. As she slowly uncovers realities surrounding the family she's married into, you can see a hollowness erode her beautiful features. She remains human despite the dramatic overtones (she never resorts to Hollywood's overtly obvious understanding of melodramatic `emoting') and delivers a quietly natural performance. When she does unleash her suffering, it is with haunting desperation. She completely collapses within her character's knowledge. It's just a shame the film collapses the moment she leaves it."

Yeah, that pretty much sums it all up. She acts circles around the rest of the cast, including Ryan Gosling, who suffers from poor character development (the script seems to skeletal when all is said and done) and really bad makeup. I wish I could say skip the film, but you need to at least watch the films first half. The moment Dunst leaves the scene though, you can take your exit as well. The film just can't recover from such a tragic loss.