Have you ever noticed that films presenting a negative depiction of rich people don’t get big releases, don’t do very well at the box office, and don’t get very good reviews? My wife and I avoided All Good Things when it was showing at Angelika last year, mainly because of the negative reviews. Boy were we wrong to do that – it’s just more proof that you should never trust the New York Times movie reviewers. All Good Things is a really good film.

All Good Things is based on real people and real events and tells the story of a revolting family of rich people that got their wealth through supporting prostitution and other seedy ventures. Their emotionally disturbed first son is guilted into joining the family business, with tragic results. It’s a tense, interesting story, gripping from beginning to end. The writing is solid, not great, and the same could be said for the dialog. It all could have been better, but it is still quite good as it is. I sort of agree with mainstream critics that Ryan Gosling plays the role too over-the-top robotic (he plays it like Lars and the Real Girl, for Heaven’s sake!), and Gosling has never been a favorite of mine to begin with. But the story is strong and interesting enough to survive has monochromatic approach to the role.

The twinkling star of this film is Kirsten Dunst, an actress that I have raved about before on this site, and who never fails to show her dazzling acting skill in anything she gets involved in. My wife put it best: she lights up the screen, effortlessly. Merely watching the preview to this movie you will see exactly what I am talking about. She has the most marvelous command of her facial expressions as an actress – modern films love to swap dialog for “meaningful looks” but Kiki is one of a very small handful of actresses who can actually pull it off, and she is able to do so spectacularly. Consider the scene where she first snorts cocaine in the restroom and then comes back out the the table – her physical acting in that scene, the way the complex emotions her character is feeling at that moment bubble through to the surface, simply amazing. But calling out scenes like this actually does her a disservice in a way, because she makes even the smallest, most incidental scenes work so well. Thanks to her, any problems with the casting or script become secondary to the emotion and intrigue of the story.

I highly recommend this wonderful little movie!