All Good Things

Spanning three decades, this “truth is stranger than fiction” tale revolves around David Marks (Ryan Gosling), troubled scion of domineering New York real estate entrepreneur Sanford Marks (Frank Langella). David marries Katie (Kirsten Dunst), a working-class “shiksa” from Long Island, but tries to evade familial responsibilities—moving to Vermont and opening the titular health-food store. But that doesn't last long and soon he's back in Manhattan, reluctantly collecting rent on his father's properties in Times Square and making his wife miserable (demanding she get an abortion because he doesn't want children). When Katie mysteriously vanishes, things turn more bizarre, as increasingly eccentric David flees to Galveston, TX, where he pretends to be a mute woman and becomes creepily involved with an elderly, penniless neighbor named Malvern Bump (Philip Baker Hall). Based on the escapades of the real-life Robert Durst, who took a payout of more than $50 million in exchange for giving up claims to his family's money, All Good Things serves up a speculative account of how he may have contributed to his spouse's still-unexplained disappearance in 1982. But despite the evidence, filmmaker Andrew Jarecki's ambiguous psychological thriller simply doesn't ring true. Optional. (S. Granger)