ALL GOOD THINGS

This movie is based on a true story about the son of a wealthy real estate developer who was strongly suspected of multiple murders but who was never found guilty.

Ryan Gosling plays David, the son and he is excellent. He watched his mother commit suicide and has lived with a very critical and judgmental father and has always been compared to his high achieving brother who is quite happy to be part of the real estate business. David meets Katie who is played wonderfully by Kirsten Dunst. They fall in love and with her support and encouragement move to Vermont and open a health food store called All Good Things.

This lasts until David's father (acted imperiously well by Frank Langella) threatens to remove David from the will and to stop subsidizing their rural lifestyle. So David and Katie move back to the city and the film shows the gradual deterioration of David's mental health and his descent into violent outbursts and his withdrawal from social outlets and meaningful communication.

After Katie has an abortion because David is adamant he does not want to be a father, she wants a divorce. Then after some particularly harrowing suspensefilled tense encounters and arguments between them (with hints of some physical abuse and her discovering that he had killed their husky dog), she 'disappears'. The case has never been closed. The movie strongly suggests that David killed her.

Then years later, a friend of David's is killed just as the police are going to question her about the death of David's wife and again, the film suggests that David arranged her murder by offering a homeless man a place to live. He was never charged with that murder. and then he kills the friend and he is finally charged with a crime but the jury finds him not guilty of murder because they believed his story of self-defense.

The film ends by letting us know that he is currently living in Florida and working as a real estate developer.

Because there was no real ending or closure to the murders, i was left with an unsatisfying feeling. but the movie was excellently acted and there was mounting tension and edge of the seat scenes throughout the film.