04/02/2012: All Good Things [2010]

So I watched this movie based on two things. The trailer I saw for it and the big names I saw in the trailer. The trailer gave me no real idea of what the story was about. What I made out from it was a husband who had a secret and may or may not be a lawyer.



So the second reason I watched this was the appearance of Ryan Gosling and Kirsten Dunst. Ryan Gosling is definitely a rising and risen star who isn't just famous for playing a recurring character in action movies. He always chooses very unique movies and always puts on a powerful performance.

"The perfect love story, until it became the perfect crime"

Just reading this tagline would have given me a better understanding of what I was about to watch. Okay, I'm gonna watch a romance story, then someone kills someone. So going into the movie blind is something I always consider. What if I didn't know this was a horror movie, or that it was a comedy, or maybe even that it was about the supernatural? How much would this change things?

Well as unprepared as I was for this movie it threw me a loaded gun, filled with promise and danger.

"Based on true events."

It even gives me the date. So now I'm sitting there thinking, this should be good. No one ever makes a big budget movie about Joe the mailman who lived an uneventful and average life.


So the movie goes on to tell us first the love story of David and Katie and starts to feed us those dark clues and tidbits. David's father is a little angry, okay the family is a crime family, okay David watched a certain something happen as a child. I won't elaborate further as not to ruin the plot, but it builds well and keeps itself with a good flow, feeling longer than it actually is.

Very cool time period, with all the strange styles to match.

This is were I have problems with true stories about unsolved crimes. They tend to stretch over about 30+ years, be good at embellishing but never giving you any truths or facts. Being unresolved the ending is never satisfactory and leave you wondering what really happened. This can be good, but after investing so much time to build the characters and their world I feel a bit cheated. Apparently the guy David Marks is based off of watched part of the filming of this movie from afar. Does he get royalties?

Ryan Gosling really is a chameleon isn't he?

So all in all this movie has left me with mixed feelings and a lot of questions. It is however a powerful movie with great directing and performances. Check it out if you like murder mysteries or true stories.

Link:
All Good Things IMDB