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| A job that makes a killing: Ryan Gosling and Kirsten Dunst in All Good Things. |
All Good Things--It's not strange at all that director Andrew Jarecki finds interest in dramatizing the mystery surrounding the case of a wealthy New York real-estate tycoon's involvement with murder. He, in fact, documented the uncovering of a troubled family in 2003's Capturing the Friedmans. All Good Things tells the story of a troubled young man (Ryan Gosling) who is torn between his loyalty to his family's legacy (represented by his tyrannical father, played by Frank Langella) and desire to entirely deviate from that environment with his young wife, played by Kirsten Dunst. What ensues is his corrupt involvement in his family's business, and eventually the disappearance of his wife and murder of his best friend.
For a film focusing on a story filled with tension and deception, All Good Things feels somewhat lifeless. The characters are rather shallow--Jarecki never really gives us any sense of subjectivity or emotion other than surfaced expressions, while the dialogue does little in terms of revelation or humanizing. This is not to say any of the performances are bad, though. Gosling and Langella serviceably do what they can with their characters, while Dunst gives an unusually strong performance as someone who should be depicted as much more complex than the film allows. The film's narrative pace is crisp and it's shot beautifully--the cinematography and editing hints at an eerie tone that's never fully realized because the film is restraining too much. In fact, it feels much slighter than it should be. If it gave its characters and plot more breathing room and perhaps extended certain sequences, the film would be much bolder and endlessly haunting. The story is intriguing enough, but the film isn't. Despite great performances and technical credits, All Good Things holds back when it should be striving for something more.
Grade: C+
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