All Good Things

(2010)
I checked this one out solely because Ryan Gosling was in it, and even when I dont love the movie I tend to really enjoy his work. In this movie he plays David Marks, son of a wealthy real-estate magnate (Frank Langella) in New York City in the early 70s. David resists joining the family business as it bores him, but his father has other ideas, and when he meets Katie (Kirsten Dunst), his desire to provide for her outweighs his qualms about working for his old man and he signs on. Turns out the older Marks is somewhat of a slumlord, and he owns many of the seedier properties on 42nd street (this was back before they cleaned it up). Yes, its one of those movies where no one is really good, or innocent, although Dunsts Katie comes pretty close. When she and David have a falling out over Katies unexpected pregnancy, however, their relationship deteriorates until one day she suddenly goes missing. Theres not much mystery to the picture although we arent shown the exact circumstances of her vanishing, we are strongly led to suspect that David did it, and though this story is based on real-life events, its not really about the suspense. Its more about the performances, and there, the movie kind of falls flat. Gosling, Dunst, and Langella are all fine, but theres no spark here, nothing that makes you sit up and take notice. These are all skilled actors doing perfectly adequate jobs, but the story limps along at a glacial pace, and none of the leads is very interesting or engaging at all; its like sitting around watching your idiot neighbors be mean to one another for an hour and a half. Even if it is well-acted, its not all that terribly compelling. I was impressed by how they captured the flavor of the Seventies, so I enjoyed that part of it (even though they played fast and loose with the music, playing songs that hadnt been released at the time when they are featured in the movie), but both sonically and visually they manage to summon the look and feel of the late 70s/early 80s very well. But as Ive said before, when Im casting about to production design and soundtrack to find something good to say about a film, were in trouble. All Good Things is certainly a meticulously crafted film, but for all the work and effort its neither very engaging or compelling. Youve seen all these actors in better efforts; go with one of those. November 25, 2011