movie review all good things

Marrying into a nightmare

“All Good Things” is based on one of those true stories like Dominick Dunne used to tell so intriguingly in Vanity Fair. Let me begin with a brief summary, based on the film because I know nothing about the reality. It involves David Marks, the son of a New York family that owned valuable 42nd Street real estate in the 1970s. The property at that time was rented to strip clubs, porno shops, massage parlors and so on. The family, wealthy and private, moved in the best circles and the nature of its holdings was not widely known.

The patriarch, Sanford Marks ( Frank Langella ), is a commanding man who is hands-on. He often collects the rent in cash. He expects his son to enter the family business. David ( Ryan Gosling ) wants nothing to do with it. A free spirit of the Woodstock era, he meets Katie ( Kirsten Dunst ), and together they escape from New York and open a twee Vermont health foods and organic products store named, yes, All Good Things.

Sanford ratchets up the pressure. David caves in and returns to Manhattan, where his wife enjoys a luxurious but unhappy existence. She eventually discovers the nature of the family business. David, meanwhile, begins to change from the loving hippie she fell in love with. Their marriage comes apart. Katie disappears. She is never found again. David is suspected of being involved, but never charged, because he appears to have an unquestionable alibi.

And I will not reveal more. The film is the work of Andrew Jarecki , who in 2003 made the remarkable, Sundance-winning documentary “Capturing the Friedmans,” about a family and its secrets; the father and one son were charged with child molestation. It’s easy to see why this story appealed to him.

The key to the film is in the character of David. One can imagine a scenario in which an overbearing father drives the son to rebellion, but what happens here is more complex and sinister. David seemingly adapts to the lifestyle forced upon him. He plays a role like his father played among Manhattan power brokers and establishment members. He and Katie live in an expensive condo, attend charity events and so on. Perhaps it is self-hatred that drives him to insist they have an abortion.

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. The man she married and trusted has undergone the transformation of a Dr. Jekyll. What happens is the sort of thing that develops only in fantastical horror stories, but this story apparently did happen in one form or another, and the most incredible details of David’s transformation are specifically based on facts revealed during two murder investigations.

I choose not to reveal how or where David meets the wonderfully named Malvern Bump ( Philip Baker Hall ). The nature of their relationship goes along with where they meet — the place both their lives have bottomed. Hall is one of those actors who seem to have inhabited their characters for years. He needs no explanation, because he just exists.

Jarecki offers a possible solution for the enigma of Katie’s disappearance and David’s alibi. It involves his enigmatic friendship with Janice Rizzo ( Diane Venora ), and that’s enough about that. This film reminded me of Barbet Schroeder’s “ Reversal of Fortune ” (1990), based on the Dominick Dunne-able Claus von Bulow case. In both stories, there is every reason to focus on the obvious suspect, except the impossibility of explaining how he could have committed the crime: Indeed, if there even was a crime.

I don’t understand David Marks after seeing this film, and I don’t know if Andrew Jarecki does. It occurs to me that on my first visits to New York of course I was drawn to 42nd Street, the port of entry for many a young man from the provinces, and I might even have laid eyes on Sanford or David Marks. Little would I have known.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

All Good Things

• Kirsten Dunst as Katie Marks
• Frank Langella as Sanford Marks
• Philip Baker Hall as Malvern Bump
• Lily Rabe as Deborah Lehrman
• Ryan Gosling as David Marks
• Diane Venora as Janice Rizzo
• Kristen Wiig as Lauren Fleck

Directed by

• Andrew Jarecki
• Marc Smerling
• Marcus Hinchey

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Movie Review | 'All Good Things'

Assorted Acts of Betrayal Among the Moneyed and Dysfunctional

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By Manohla Dargis

• Dec. 2, 2010

There are various bad things in “All Good Things,” principally a dictatorial father, a submissive son and the tragic fates of the two unfortunate women who married them. These bad things are part of a strange case named David Marks, a fictional character based on Robert A. Durst, the true-life son of a New York real estate developer, Seymour Durst. Among the weirder bad things: in 1982 the younger Mr. Durst’s wife, Kathie, disappeared. In 2000 his friend Susan Berman was murdered. (Both cases remain open.) A year later, while living as a mute woman in Texas, he killed (and chopped up) a neighbor in self-defense. Well, the jury called it self-defense before sending him to jail. The film takes a somewhat different view.

The director Andrew Jarecki, best known for his documentary “Capturing the Friedmans,” about a Long Island family implicated in a child sexual-abuse scandal in the 1980s, has a thing for very bad things or at least unhappy relations. Certainly the fictionalized brood in “All Good Things” is equal to the Friedmans in terms of dysfunction, and they’re loaded. You get a sense of just how much money they have in the opening-credit sequence, with its artfully antiqued (faked) home-movie footage of children frolicking in summer whites on a lawn as great as that in Central Park. It’s a pretty picture or would be if the ominous music and camera position didn’t seem directed at the man portentously lurking in the background.

The lurker turns out to be Sanford Marks (Frank Langella), the domineering patriarch based on Seymour Durst, who serves as the villain. (All the names have been changed.) It’s a role that Mr. Langella fits easily, with a body that looms in the frame and an insinuating voice — every pause seems to hide a threat — which seeps into your nervous system. His recessive, physically slighter son, David (Ryan Gosling), hardly seems a worthy heir. Not that David appears especially interested in following in the footsteps of a father who walks all over everyone in sight. It’s no wonder that David grabs onto Katie (Kirsten Dunst), a lovely young woman who shyly takes an interest in him, and heads off into the country.

Written by Marc Smerling and Marcus Hinchey, the film itself takes off in the early 1970s when David and Katie move to Vermont, where they open a health-food store called All Good Things. Their idyll is cut short when Big Daddy comes calling and, after threatening to cut off their money, bullies David into returning to New York to join the family business . It’s initially puzzling why David, who seems so normal he’s borderline bland, gives in. David chafes at his father’s demands (which include collecting money from sleazy tenants), but Mr. Jarecki doesn’t rush to explain the character. Instead, he reveals David gradually through the dark looks, flashes of anger and sinister mutterings that herald the eventual conflagrations.

Through the good times and very bad the two leads are a comfortable, persuasive match. The appealing Ms. Dunst can make you see the melancholy in her smiles, and this works beautifully for a character whose love grows clouded with worry and then fear. Even after David brutally betrays Katie, Ms. Dunst lets you see what keeps her tethered to him when she knows she should leave. And because Ms. Dunst continues to show you that love when all the air and happiness have been sucked out of the couple’s relationship, she helps keep David recognizably human. For his part, Mr. Gosling creates a character who’s charming and a touch creepy at the beginning, and increasingly charmless and creepy through to the end.

Unlike some actors who play heavies, Mr. Gosling doesn’t try to win your sympathies by softening his character. Yet even as the actor works to turn you off, Mr. Jarecki tries to pull you back in by milking David’s childhood, specifically in relation to his mother’s suicide. This shifts some of the blame to David’s father, but by putting the family on the couch Mr. Jarecki only strengthens the feeling that this small, familiar, finally unremarkable tale of the moneyed and bloodied is the stuff of cable crime movies. That remains true even after David goes underground as a woman, complete with a long wig and painted nails. Mr. Gosling makes a sensationally dowdy chick, but to no greater end: David remains a cipher, never rising to enigma.

Mr. Jarecki gets much right in this movie, his fiction feature debut, but he never invests it with urgency. After the bodies have bled out, the puzzle pieces have been assembled and the final credits have rolled, you are left with the feeling that his principal goal was reopening the case. Yet unlike Errol Morris’s 1988 documentary, “The Thin Blue Line,” an exploration of a miscarriage of justice that led to the release of a wrongly accused prisoner, this film — which asks you to fear and pity David but never makes him worthy of your attention — seems unlikely to inspire the outrage necessary for action. After all, even the real Robert A. Durst, who was recently shown “All Good Things,” has said that he likes it .

“All Good Things” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). Discreet sex and far less demure violence.

ALL GOOD THINGS

Opens on Friday in Manhattan.

Directed by Andrew Jarecki; written by Marcus Hinchey and Marc Smerling; director of photography, Michael Seresin; edited by David Rosenbloom and Shelby Siegel; music by Rob Simonsen; production design by Wynn Thomas; costumes by Michael Clancy; produced by Bruna Papandrea, Michael London, Mr. Smerling and Mr. Jarecki; released by Magnolia Pictures. Running time: 1 hour 38 minutes.

WITH: Ryan Gosling (David Marks), Kirsten Dunst (Katie Marks), Frank Langella (Sanford Marks), Lily Rabe (Deborah Lehrman), Philip Baker Hall (Malvern Bump), Michael Esper (Daniel Marks), Diane Venora (Janice Rizzo), Nick Offerman (Jim McCarthy), Kristen Wiig (Lauren Fleck), Stephen Kunken (Todd Fleck) and John Cullum (Richard Panatierre).

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All Good Things Reviews

The vague way in which Jarecki and his screenwriters, Marcus Hinchey and Marc Smerling, reach their hypotheses about what “really happened” feels less engaging than a documentary on the same subject might’ve been.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 3, 2023

A chilling psychological portrait of a man, a marriage and a family.

Full Review | Nov 16, 2019

An atmospheric, well-acted piece of true crime fictionalised.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 3, 2019

The film is cleverly constructed to acknowledge family eccentricities the way you might discuss a crazy relative at Thanksgiving when they're not in the room, but keeps circling back to how they've made it work over 28 years.

Full Review | Nov 1, 2018

... impressive and powerful actor Frank Langella steals each and every scene... [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 15, 2018

This movie isn't terrible. It's just forgettable.

Full Review | Oct 24, 2017

The result just falls flat.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Sep 9, 2017

The acting occasionally borders on great. The story itself is more than worthy. But none of that comes close to overcoming the misguided pacing and overall lack of depth.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Mar 23, 2015

A somewhat flawed yet ultimately satisfying thriller.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 23, 2015

A story that's overloaded with research and unbridled speculation, all told with no clear direction.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 23, 2015

Filled with fact, but barren of any real story, All Good Things barely has a couple good things worth mentioning.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Mar 23, 2015

The end result is intriguing, with a dash of a love story here and a twisty whodunit there. A fine performance by Ryan Gosling glues the mishmash together.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 23, 2015

All Good Things isn't a pleasurable film to experience, but it offers an uncanny evocation of a narcissistic sociopath who doesn't come at us with the charm and sophistication that the typical screen bad guy has.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 23, 2015

All Good Things is a crackerjack crime thriller.

The Duel drops us into a pool of languid provincial life ( ... ) Kosashvili gets the delicate falling ending of short fiction that is so hard to achieve on screen.

Full Review | Nov 13, 2013

Ryan Gosling is sadly miscast as the villain in this poorly-written drama.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Jun 30, 2013

It's not a glossy crime thriller, it's not a Freudian family study, it's not the tale of a doomed romance. It's a sloppy mishmash of all those things that adds up to nothing at all.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Jun 22, 2013

David (Gosling) finds potential salvation in Katie (Kirsten Dunst), a free spirit so saintlike that she verges on caricature.

Full Review | Jun 20, 2013

Generally interesting but lost in the year-end shuffle

Full Review | Aug 4, 2011

Jarecki never settles on what kind of story he wants to tell with these elements, and despite good performances, "All Good Things" veers awkwardly from love story to tragedy, from true-life mystery to black comedy.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 4, 2011

Movie review: ‘All Good Things’

• Copy Link URL Copied!

“All Good Things,” a twisted mystery starring Kirsten Dunst and Ryan Gosling, is a stretch. A better name might have been “A Few Good Things” or “How a rich kid became a cross-dressing murdering mute and got away with it.” The murders, that is. The cross-dressing bit he didn’t even try to cover up.

But back to the good thing about “All Good Things” — that would be Kirsten Dunst, for if there is one thing this strange and creepy film does well it is remind us of just what a talented actress she is. Gosling is good too, but Dunst is “all good,” beautifully nuanced as a young woman whose hopeful dreams turn dark and deadly.

Though the film is a fiction, it is based on the real story of Robert and Kathie Durst. He was the son of a New York real estate magnate; she was a Long Island girl trying to make it in the big city when they met. Love and marriage soon followed. But the other half of the phrase that begins with “all good things” is “must come to an end,” and so they did — badly.

Ten years in, the marriage apparently turned violent and one day Kathie vanished into thin air. No body was found; no murder charges were filed. Over the years the case would occasionally be pulled out and dusted off, most notably in 2000. It still wasn’t solved, but two people close to Robert were killed around the same time — a longtime female friend (played by Lily Rabe), and one of his neighbors in the Galveston, Texas, rooming house where he was living.

The question that has been hanging in the air since Kathie disappeared is: What really happened? That is what the film sets out to answer. It’s exactly the kind of conundrum that appeals to director Andrew Jarecki. Best known for his explosive documentary “Capturing the Friedmans,” (about a family imploding over pedophilia allegations) and for producing this year’s “Catfish” (a controversial doc about people creating false identities online), Jarecki has found his wheelhouse where real life and the bizarre intersect.

His fine documentary sensibility, though, is the film’s downfall. The names have been changed — the couple is now called Katie and David Marks — but little else has. Instead, “All Good Things” is a case of letting the facts get in the way. If the filmmakers had been bolder with their theories, the movie itself would likely have been much better given the general quality of the performances and the artistry of cinematographer Michael Seresin (though the film might have benefited from a bit more of the black mood he brought to “Midnight Express” and “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”).

The facts were certainly a juicy starting point. Jarecki and screenwriters Marc Smerling and Marcus Hinchey spent years culling through police files, newspaper articles and transcripts of the one murder Durst was tried for: that of his neighbor (renamed Malvern here and played by Philip Baker Hall), whose dismembered body was found in Galveston Bay. Durst was cleared of the murder charge, but did a few years for evidence tampering and other minor offenses. Most of the specifics are laid out as the film follows some 30 years of David’s life.

Gosling and Dunst are at their best as a young couple in love. Though you feel the long arm of the family and its steel-fisted patriarch played with a cold efficiency by Frank Langella, the actress infuses Katie with a free-spirited innocence and openness that is so winning you understand why David fell in love, and dad accepted their marriage. Dunst literally lights up the screen. Meanwhile, Gosling wears the rebellious rich boy role like the custom-made tux he dons for their first date. There is a great playfulness the actors create as a hopeful pair defying dad and setting up housekeeping in Vermont, where they run an organic food store (does Vermont have any other kind?).

But the film gets badly off track when the good things start to end. There is the overbearing father for David to contend with, and he’s still haunted by his mother’s suicide he witnessed as a child, but still — multiple murders, cross-dressing disguises? Gosling is given the barest blueprint of a life gone terribly wrong and the actor struggles to make something out of nothing, though he does manage to give the older David an aura of weirdness that is downright creepy.

There is a point during the murder trial when David is asked why he started wearing dresses, heels and a bad blond wig. Basically he says, “it was the easiest way to stop being David Marks.” Which is a reason, not an explanation. And that is how “All Good Things” ultimately fails us. The facts pile up, but the demons that would lead to such dark deeds remain out of sight. Did he or didn’t he? Maybe, probably, who knows for sure? Certainly not us.

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Former Los Angeles Times film critic Betsy Sharkey is an award-winning entertainment journalist and bestselling author. She left the newsroom in 2015. In addition to her critical essays and reviews of about 200 films a year for The Times, Sharkey’s weekly movie reviews appeared in newspapers nationally and internationally. Her books include collaborations with Oscar-winning actresses Faye Dunaway on “Looking for Gatsby” and Marlee Matlin on “I’ll Scream Later.” Sharkey holds a degree in journalism and a master’s in communications theory from Texas Christian University.

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Parents' guide to, all good things.

• Common Sense Says
• Parents Say 2 Reviews
• Kids Say 0 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Depressing "true" story of violence and destroyed lives.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this downbeat drama -- which is based on the true story of a man involved in a disappearance and two deaths over the course of 30 years -- tells the tale of a destroyed marriage and two miserable lives. There's some violence and blood related to the murders, as well as ugly fights between the…

Why Age 17+?

The characters regularly smoke cigarettes and pot and snort coke. They also drin

Infrequent use of "f--k" and "motherf----r." Also "a--hole."

The married couple flirts, kisses, seduces each other, and has sex. Nudity is li

Three (possible) murders are shown to varying degrees. Some happen totally off-s

Any Positive Content?

David gives up his dream to work for his father, and it costs him his happiness.

The central couple makes all the wrong moves; they start out marrying for love,

Parents need to know that this downbeat drama -- which is based on the true story of a man involved in a disappearance and two deaths over the course of 30 years -- tells the tale of a destroyed marriage and two miserable lives. There's some violence and blood related to the murders, as well as ugly fights between the married couple. They kiss and seduce each other and have sex (though there's little nudity). Language is limited to a few uses of "f--k," but there's lots of drinking and drug use, including cigarettes, cocaine, and pot. Teens may be interested to see what stars Ryan Gosling and Kirsten Dunst are up to, but this depressing, flat movie won't cause much of a stir.

To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

The characters regularly smoke cigarettes and pot and snort coke. They also drink quite often in a social context, i.e. beer and wine at dinner or harder drinks at parties.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

The married couple flirts, kisses, seduces each other, and has sex. Nudity is limited to a shower scene in which breasts are visible in silhouette.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

Three (possible) murders are shown to varying degrees. Some happen totally off-screen, while one involves a gun and blood oozing from the back of the victim's head. Another victim is beaten to death but not shown. There are bloody clues pointing to the murders. Also occasional arguments and fits of rage; in one scene, the husband grabs his wife and drags her by the hair. She turns up with a black eye in another scene. Discussion of a past suicide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Role Models

David gives up his dream to work for his father, and it costs him his happiness. He begins to act crazy and violent and alienates his wife, who wants to have a baby. David and Katie continue to spiral out of control, getting worse and worse, without ever taking action to solve their problems or work together. Katie eventually realizes her dream of going to medical school, but she does so partly to hide from her pain and anguish. Both characters tend to drown their troubles in alcohol, drugs, and cigarettes.

Positive Messages

The central couple makes all the wrong moves; they start out marrying for love, but then major life decisions drive a wedge between them. They grow violent toward one another and then grow apart. They rarely talk or work together try to solve these problems, and eventually their path leads to much darker places.

Where to Watch

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Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents Say (2)

Based on 2 parent reviews

Bland & Blah...

Extremely cliche, poor direction and screenplay, good performances, what's the story.

David Marks ( Ryan Gosling ) is the son of a wealthy property owner ( Frank Langella ). He marries Katie ( Kirsten Dunst ), who is outside the family's social circle, and dreams of running a health food store. But eventually he succumbs to his father and goes to work for the family business, which begins a harrowing decline into anxiety and violence. Katie gets pregnant, but David refuses to become a father. They begin fighting and, eventually, living separate lives. Before long, David becomes involved in a disappearance and two mysterious deaths. Will he be made to face the consequences of his life, or will he simply disappear?

Is It Any Good?

This is director Andrew Jarecki 's fictional debut, and unfortunately, it isn't particularly engaging. Jarecki, who gave audiences the brutally powerful dysfunctional family documentary Capturing the Friedmans , now turns his skills to a "based on a true story" feature film -- and interestingly, he takes a documentary-like approach to the material, narrating the tale with Marks' court transcript and filling in the blanks with deduction and imagination.

The material is relentlessly harrowing, and it's difficult to know just where the characters stand: David is shown to be slightly unhinged, and there's no one to root for. Additionally, Jarecki employs some fairly standard-issue thriller elements, such as jump-shocks and things hiding in the shadows, which seem unworthy of this story. It's difficult, ultimately, to discern the point of the movie, other than to comment on how depressing and futile it all is.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the violence in the film. What has more impact: the things that are shown, or the ones that aren't? Which is more disturbing, the murders or the violence toward Katie?

The main characters tend to drown their troubles in drinking , smoking , and drugs. These activities never seem to get out of control, but does that make it all right? What would the consequences of this kind of behavior be in real life?

Could David have avoided all of his trouble if he had ignored his father and kept on living the life he dreamed of living?

Movie Details

• In theaters : December 3, 2010
• On DVD or streaming : March 29, 2011
• Cast : Frank Langella , Kirsten Dunst , Ryan Gosling
• Director : Andrew Jarecki
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Magnolia Pictures
• Genre : Drama
• Run time : 101 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : drug use, violence, language and some sexuality
• Last updated : February 11, 2024

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• Cast & crew

User reviews

All Good Things

Well-executed 'exhumation' of an unsolved murder.

• Dec 17, 2010

Some Not So Good Things

• Jan 22, 2011

Spectacular performances by Dunst and Gosling!

• Nov 6, 2010

based on a true crime story

• Nov 16, 2012

Condemnation by Hollywood--a horrid tale told with perfunctory familiarity

• May 15, 2011

Im gonna keep this simple and short

• danielkjeilen
• Dec 7, 2010

Amazing Acting and a Good Story

• Dec 8, 2010
• FrankBuckster
• Apr 26, 2024

... come to an end?

• Jan 17, 2011

True-life psycho

• Jun 22, 2012

Stranger then Fiction

• Nov 5, 2010

Fine Performances Can't Save Script

• Michael_Elliott
• Dec 7, 2011

"Does that girl know how f----d up you are?"

• Apr 7, 2022

A Painful Waste Of Time

• May 27, 2011

Interesting true story but lacks tension

• SnoopyStyle
• Feb 23, 2014

Chilly but watchable cold case file. re-enactment

• Dec 23, 2010

The Dark Side.

• Apr 6, 2013

Dark and disturbing, but excellent performances nonetheless

• Dec 11, 2014

Dramatized movie of a very strange true story.

• Jul 10, 2011

Wonderful performances headline this otherwise average thriller

• moviexclusive
• Jan 4, 2011

Extreme manipulation in telling what could have been a great story

• napierslogs

Awful waste of time

• Oct 6, 2011

Think, 'Oscar-worthy "Unsolved Mysteries" Segment.'

• drownsoda90
• Dec 15, 2010

JUST OKAY - (6 stars out of 10)

• Phantastic-Flix
• Dec 1, 2021

Like Watching Paint Dry

• Apr 29, 2011

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All Good Things

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

The names have been changed but hardly to protect the innocent in Andrew Jarecki’s speculative, spellbinding true-crime story, All Good Things . Ryan Gosling stars as David Marks, the heir to a New York real estate fortune, who became a person of interest to the police when his wife, Katie (Kirsten Dunst), disappeared from their Westchester home. Her body was never found. When the case is reopened, David — dressed as a woman — retreats to Galveston, Texas, where he links up with neighbor Malvern Bump (Philip Baker Hall), 71, whose dismembered body is later found in the bay. Durst pleads self-defense. He is also questioned but not charged in the murder of his longtime college friend Deborah (Lily Rabe), a journalist shot execution style in the back of the head at her Los Angeles home. David served three years in jail for bail jumping and evidence tampering (dumping Bump’s body) and now lives in Florida where he sells real estate.

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Is this ringing a bell? It should. David bears more than a passing resemblance to Robert Durst, the real-estate heir diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, whose wife Kathleen McCormack went missing in 1982. Durst was questioned in the shooting death of his journalist friend Susan Berman, the daughter of a Jewish mobster, and claimed self-defense in the death and dismemberment of his Galveston neighbor Morris Black. Jarecki’s film directly implicates Durst, as David Marks, in all three homicides.

Audiences may be surprised that Jarecki, who won acclaim and an Oscar nomination for Capturing the Friedmans , a 2003 documentary about a family accused of child molestation, did not tell the Durst story in non-fiction form. Despite the obvious legal reasons, it’s clear that Jarecki wants to probe the psychological layers of a man glibly dismissed as a one-dimensional psychotic. And he used his documentary team to conduct his own exhaustive investigation into the case, not relying on a single article or clip-job book to muster his arguments. The result is a potent and provocative movie that will keep you up nights. All Good Things , ironically named, in “Rosebud” style, after the Vermont health food store the couple opened in the happier days of their marriage, is built to disturb as well as enlighten. And Jarecki, as a first-time feature director, elicits terrific performances from a large cast. Gosling gets so deep into character you can feel his nerve endings. Dunst is heartbreakingly good as the wife who senses fear too late. Rabe excels as the journalist friend with ulterior motives. And Frank Langella brings menacing charm to the tycoon father who allowed his young son to watch his mother take a suicide leap off the roof of the family mansion. All Good Things throws so many narrative balls in the air that you may struggle to catch up. It’s worth the effort. Jarecki is a master of the telling detail.

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