Mini-review: All Good Things (2010, Jarecki)
November 28th 2010 21:25
All Good Things (Jarecki, 2010)
All Good Things spans a period of over 20 years (although there are significant gaps in time) and depicts real life real estate heir David Marks (Ryan Gosling).
Director Andrew Jarecki, who helmed the incredible documentary Capturing the Friedmans, seems lost behind the camera of his first feature film. The film itself, and in turn Jarecki, seems unclear as to what tone it wishes to set. The first act feels incredibly rushed, attempting to establish a relationship between the characters and the audience, yet never fully giving us enough time to care. The film easily manipulates the audience in terms of how they want us to feel about the character of David Marks and the overall feel of the film given its thriller based score. The fact of the matter is All Good Things is a film that, while inspired by true events, is largely speculative. The majority of the action is a supposed version of events. Ultimately, it’s easy to believe the trajectory of the film and the characters, but still we’re highly aware as the film winds to a close that everything we’ve just seen could be off base.
David is a disturbed individual, yet aside from childhood trauma, we don’t learn too much about him. It’s difficult to understand why he ultimately decides to return to his father’s business and why he starts to act out violently to his wife, Katie (Kirsten Dunst). The film unfolds with a tense score and heightened paranoia, yet it’s the quieter scenes with the actors that feel more real. There are a few moments of beauty between these actors where their strengths and chemistry shine through and thus, we’re treated to something lovely. Sadly, these segments get lost within something utterly disjointed and disconnected.
Overall, Dunst and Gosling do a solid job along with a strong supporting cast that includes Frank Langella, Phillip Baker Hall, and Kristin Wiig. However, Jarecki never quite makes this thriller/psychological study work. Perhaps, if the film had been more of the latter than the former, it could have.
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