In October 2001 Robert Durst, a member of a wealthy NY real estate dynasty, was on the run after being accused of murder/s, and he was eventually caught when simply trying to steal a chicken sandwich even though he had a stash of cash on him. I should add that at the time of his arrest he was posing as a deaf female mute. The whole situation up to this moment in time was too bizarre to be real, and perfect to be made into a movie. And this is exactly what ‘All Good Things’ is: a very thinly veiled fictionalized account of a man who got away with murder. Literally. Names have been changed, and there is no mention of the sandwich, but the story is very much what actually happened.
David Mark’s family seems to owe its collective dysfunction to Stanford the autocratic patriarch whose tyranny resulted in driving his wife to suicide which he insisted that 6 year old David witness. (And we wonder why poor David grows up crazy?). The family’s extensive real estate holdings in Manhattan included much of the seedy part of 42nd St and was rented out to strip clubs, porno shops and massage parlors and part of David’s job was to go and collect all rents paid for by wads of cash. He had previously managed to escape his father for a while having met Katie, and once they married, they disappeared to Vermont to open a Health Food Store in an attempt to carve out a life of their own. The overbearing Stanford insisted they move back and for a short while they did actually seem to enjoy all the trappings of their wealthy lifestyle, including the weekend country cottage, before it all began to untangle.
Caught between trying to appease his father and please his wife David started to fall apart as did their marriage. The final crux was a battle over starting a family as David was adamant he wanted no children and so forced Katie to have an abortion when she fell pregnant. Its at this time she also caught on to the very shady business the family were involved in, and then very soon after this she mysteriously disappears and is never ever seen again. David, now really losing the plot, and with a heavy drug habit, and paranoid about facing criminal charges relating to Katie, ‘disappears’ to Texas where he re-surfaces as a cross-dressing mute. Two (more) murders later, and he’s on the run and is eventually caught and Tried.
And like other high-profile celebrities who terminated their wives (think O.J.) David gets off scot free and moves to Florida to become a Real Estate Investor. Hence I am choosing my words carefully as David aka Robert Durst could actually be in my neighborhood right now.
R.T.V. This fine mystery thriller doesn’t give you all the pieces of the puzzle to make the complicated story fit exactly together, but it does make for an entertaining 100 minutes. Ryan Gosling as David just keeps showing what a fine multi-talented actor he is (and how even hotter he looks when he’s being evil), and the chemistry between him and Kirsten Dunst as Kathie, and also the superb Frank Langella as scary Stanford was so very dynamic.
Apart from Mr. Gosling, what attracted me to this movie was the fact it was the feature debut of filmmaker Andrew Jaerecki who had previously made the stunning ‘Capturing The Friedmans’, still to this day one of my very favourite documentaries. If you recall it too was about a dysfunctional family and all their secrets. He must have a soft spot for them.
Labels: 2010, drama, dramatized reallife
