Review of All Good Things (2010) by Mike C — 27 Dec 2011

If you don't already like Ryan Gosling, this little story might seal the deal: this movie is about a creep who may or may not have killed three people, including his wife (played by a suprisingly good Kirstin Dunst), and his father. Whoever killed the wife likely also cut her into pieces and threw her in some body of water, never to be found (it is still an open case). Anyway, in one scene, Gosling's character grabs Dunst by the hair and drags her away from her family. I hate this type of thing, and I'm wondering why the much larger brother didn't stand and kick the shit out of the cowardly Gosling character. Regardless, the film notes say that Gosling felt so bad about that scene that he sent Dunst flowers the next day. This is why I love the guy.

The film promises to be an interesting thriller, and the cover features a very attractive Gosling and Dunst in bed. Gosling's character is far from attractive throughout the movie. He's odd and ugly. I'm quite fond of Gosling for his ability to accept roles like this, and completely opposite roles like the stud in the recent romcom with Emma Stone. And of course, he plays Lars in Lars and the Real Girl, and on that performance alone he could have retired golden in my eyes.

Dunst is good. She evidently came into this role after battling depression, and she plays the down-trodden wife well. She's quite pretty in the role, and it's quite a bummer when she goes missing. I actually shut the movie off early because it was a bit slow and a bit of a downer. Reading a bit about the case, it seems it is still open, and the male character might have killed three people without ever being tried for one of them. Furthermore, I guess the real guy does some commentary, and admits the relationship was nearly as depicted. In a telling moment, he evidently is bothered that the character kills his dog in a movie, but makes less than empathetic comments about the dismemberment of Dunst's character, which would have been his wife. Yikes, what a sociopath.