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All Good Things 
Stars: Ryan Gosling, Kirsten Dunst, Frank Langella, Philip Baker Hall, Lily Rabe, Kristen Wiig and Diane Venora
Director: Andrew Jarecki
Scriptwriters: Marcus Hinchey and Marc Smerling
Magnolia Pictures
Rating: R for violence, language and sexuality
Running Length: 101 minutes

People disappear for one of two reasons. They want to, or something happens to them. One of the famous disappearing cases of the past 25 years is that of New Yorker Katie Marks (Kirsten Dunst), the wife of a rich real estate heir, David Marks (Ryan Gosling). This film is based on news reports and trial reports of 10 years ago involving the husband, David Marks. There is an old saying, “The rich get richer…” and sometimes they fall under suspicions, too.

The film opens with a little boy’s birthday party as shown on home film. He is about eight years old, happy times, lives in a mansion with servants and gets a pony. His mother dotes on him. Fast forward to the young man, David Marks (Gosling) accidentally meeting a  hippy-type blonde woman, Katie (Dunst) and they start serious dating. Eventually, there is marriage and gradually, she begins to see the depth of his personality, which starts to resemble a black hole. In-laws include stern Dad, Frank Langella and various relatives.
Dunst starts sporting serious bruises, and people in this rich community help her to a certain point, but that is it. Beneath it all are the tentacles of a narcissism theme in which one person is the center and that is the way it should be and has to be. Katie is caught in a web and eventually disappears. In the years that follow, David hides out disguised as a woman, meets an odd elderly man, Malvern Bump (Philip Baker Hall), and live just under the wire with few contacts. There is a confrontation between father and son that makes you realize that in some families, genetics are covered with black cobwebs and money is made to be spent, period.

“All Good Things” (name of a store) starts out a bit happy, slides into mayhem and ends up in horror. This is part of a real life, story, too. We have all met people like David Marks, with eyes that rivet the room and fasten on a person like a magnet. Ryan Gosling does a fine job of depicting David, and he has screen chemistry with Kirsten Dunst, who portrays the deer in the headlights. When we meet Dad (Frank Langella), we see where David got his piercing gaze. There is a chill throughout the film, like a back door left open at night.

Philip Baker Hall plays an eccentric man who has no friends. Hall steals his scenes well. The lifestyle of the rich is aptly portrayed, especially a beautiful lake house. One can only guess at what happened to Katie Marks and this film is one idea. For people to whom riches and abuse come hand in hand, people are just items. Suspects can be right in front of you, but proof is another thing.

Copyright 2010 Marie Asner